Bulldog in a Bind
by PyreFly77
Summary: If there's one certainty in life, it's that nothing is certain. And the Paw Patrol have recently received a grim reminder of this age-old piece of advice. Now as Rubble lies in bed recuperating from a rescue gone awry, there is only one question on his lips: What happened?
1. More Than a Bad Dream

_**UPDATE 12/06/2019: A cover image has been recently added to this fic, made as a gift by Zojak. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to make this for me. It means more than you might think that you took the time to make something for me like this. Anyway: on with the show.**_

* * *

Silence.

Usually, the Lookout wasn't this quiet. There wasn't a single wisp of wind or a single chirp of a bird. There was absolutely nothing to greet Rubble as he slowly woke himself up. Even his alarm hadn't seemed to go off. For once, Rubble woke up with nothing but questions:

Why is it so quiet?  
What time is it?  
Why can't I move?  
Why does my house feel so soft?  
Why am I so cold?

Almost afraid of what the answers might be, Rubble very slowly opened his eyes with great difficulty. He must have been in a far deeper sleep than he had thought. His head was swimming and his surprisingly achey body struggled to do much of anything. He certainly didn't remember doing anything strenuous yesterday. The questions he had only multiplied when he found that he was staring up at the ceiling of a log cabin.

Rubble was unable to suppress a groan as he woke up. A combination of confusion and exhaustion that had escaped through his mouth. As much as his head was hurting and as groggy as he was, he was still surprised to hear a gasp cut through the silence.

"Rubble!"

The voice was familiar enough. It could only have been Everest. But what in the world was she doing here? For that matter, where in the world was he?

"Ev… Ev… er… esh…?" Rubble slurred, as a familiar face appeared in his field of view.

"You're awake! Oh, thank goodness! How do you feel?!" Everest barked with a worried, if relieved, look on her face,

All that greeted Everest's question was a series of soft moans. Rubble was very confused, but couldn't find the words or the strength to reply to Everest's questions.

"Oh, jeez, the hypothermia must've hit him like a truck!"

A different voice this time. Oddly hoarse though it may be, Rubble could easily identify the voice as Marshall's. But what the heck was he talking about? Hyper-what-now?

"I guess so..." Everest turned away and looked into the distance. "...he's awake sooner than I thought!"

"Me, too!" came Marshall's reply. It'll take a little while for his body to go back to normal, though."

"Right. Hypothermia happens quick, but it takes a while to recover from."

Something had obviously gone horribly wrong. And it had involved him. But he'd just woken up! What could he have done to result in Marshall and Everest panicking like this?

"Wh… wh… ere…?" Rubble slurred.

"Shhh. Easy, Rubble." Marshall whispered, now trying to calm him. Rubble felt the bed that it was now clear he was in being pushed further down as the dalmatian walked up to him dressed in his EMT gear.

"You're in the guest room at the resort. You need to rest up. You've been through a lot."

Rubble decided to just lie still as Marshall brought out his X-ray screen and ran it over him, agonizing about matters that Rubble couldn't quite comprehend.

"Well, the good news is that he's recovering at least..." Marshall concluded with a note of solemnness to his voice. "...but he's still got a long way to go."

"He won't be leaving bed any time soon." Everest replied.

"Absolutely not." Marshall shook his head frantically. "I need to stay with him. Can you let the others know he's awake, Everest?"

"Gladly. Can everyone else come and see him? You know they want to."

"Tell them to give it ten minutes. He's really out of it right now."

"Want me to check on Zuma, too?"

"No, if he's still asleep, then let him rest. I don't care how used to the cold he says he is, he's getting rest whether he likes it or not!"

Everest giggled slightly at Marshall's unusually forceful remark. "I'm on it, doctor!" Her response caused Marshall to give a small smile before Everest looked down at Rubble and nuzzled him with a surprising amount of enthusiasm.

"I'm so glad you're OK!" Everest whispered, further confusing the bulldog before she leapt down and out of sight.

Marshall sat in silence for a while with a paw on Rubble's head. A couple of times, it sounded like Marshall was swallowing back tears. Now Rubble was starting to grow worried as he steadily found the energy to talk more.

"Marshall… what's going on?" Rubble whispered.

Marshall shot Rubble a look. "What do you mean, 'what's going on'?!"

"How did I… end up here?" Rubble's eyes quickly shot open as he remembered that his movement was being restricted by something. "Wait! Why can't I move?! Where- AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH! My… leg!"

Rubble felt one of his back legs ignite into utter agony as he tried to wriggle around. Enough to bring tears to his eyes as he grit his teeth. The pile of questions and worries grew more with each passing minute: Rubble was unusually cold, unusually sore, one of his legs hurt more than anything and everyone was acting as if he'd just woken up from the dead.

"Rubble, don't move!" Marshall barked forcefully, pressing down on Rubble's torso with his paws. And as the pain died down, Rubble finally noticed that he had been wrapped up in a series of thick blankets, prohibiting him from moving.

It took a couple of seconds for Marshall's expression to soften again as Rubble laid still again, staring up at him in shock. "Do you… not remember anything?"

"Wh-what is there to remember?" Rubble stammered, answering Marshall's question nicely. The dalmatian stared down at the bulldog with a flabbergasted look.

"What's… the last thing you remember?"

"Well, going to bed last night. What the heck happened in between?

Marshall emitted a consternated whine. "Oh, man… I should've seen that coming… Let's see, where to begin… ah. OK, Rubble, I hope you're comfortable. If you don't remember anything, then we've got a lot of catching up to do."

"'Catching up'?"

"Well, we had a rescue in the mountains today..."

* * *

 _"And… done! That's some fine plow work, if I do say so, myself!" Everest said, admiring her handiwork._

 _"Nice one, Everest!" Ryder replied. "Let's not waste any more time, pups."_

 _Ryder led the pack on the way to free some mountain climbers trapped in a caved-in tunnel. With Jake at a snowboarding competition, it was a small miracle that Everest happened to be nearby to call the emergency in after hearing their muffled cries for help through the wall of rocks. Having brought Rubble to dig through the debris and Marshall to check if the climbers were hurt or not, all seemed to be fairly routine. Everest had just finished clearing away a large amount of snow that was too dangerous for the group to drive over. And with it out of the way, the Paw Patrol could continue._

 _"This is it, Ryder. Their voices came from in here." Everest said._

 _"Oh, boy. This cave must be pretty unstable." Ryder said, looking the massive pile of debris up and down._

 _"Looks like a rocky situation, huh?" Marshall joked, to giggling from the group._

 _"Well, no worries. We've brought our secret weapon." Ryder replied. "Rubble?"_

 _"Rubble on the double!" Rubble proclaimed, driving his bulldozer towards the mass of snowy boulders._

 _The crunching and crumbling sound of Rubble's scoop echoed across the snowy mountains. Little by little, the debris fell away, revealing the cave's inky-black maw. Rubble gulped at how dark it was in there. Who knows what kind of beasts could be in there?_

 _"Well… Ulp… It's clear..." Rubble said shakily._

 _"Good job, Rubble!" Ryder congratulated. "Now. Time for part two. Let's go find those climbers!"_

 _"Don't worry, Rubble." Marshall reassured. "We're with you. If there are any spiders around, we won't let them touch you!"_

 _Rubble smiled at his friend's reassurance. "Thanks, Marshall." Rubble replied warmly, as the trio advanced into the dark cave._

 _"Pretty dark, huh?" Ryder asked. "Let's light it up, pups!"_

 _Ryder drew a flashlight from his jacket and flicked it on. The pups replied by barking out their own flashlights. A team of rescuers couldn't be caught dead without them if things went dark, after all._

 _The cave was far too quiet. Not a creature in sight, except for the flurry of bats that nearly bowled over the group as they scrambled to get away from the blinding onslaught of light. Marshall suggesting that maybe some DJ music would calm them down helped keep Rubble's nerves in check, however._

 _"Hello?! Is anyone out there?!"_

 _"Hey, you hear that?" Everest asked._

 _"Sure did!" Marshall replied._

 _"It must've been those climbers!" Rubble added._

 _"Let's move!" Ryder instructed, as they ran further down the cave. "Hello?! Sit tight! Help is on the way!"_

 _It didn't take much running to find what they were looking for: a pair of mountain climbers, belt-lights aglow and dressed to explore, with one with black hair kneeling over his supine, brown-haired friend, his face contorted in pain and his leg propped up on a rock._

 _"Oh, thank goodness! Are you guys here to help us?" the black-haired climber asked._

 _"We sure are!" Ryder replied. "I'm Ryder, and these are Everest, Rubble and Marshall. Are you two OK?"_

 _"Agh… I think I hurt my leg… it's tough to walk..." The injured climber replied._

 _"Don't worry! Leave it to me!" Marshall announced. "Arf arf! X-ray screen!"_

 _At Marshall's command, the screen extended from his Pup Pack, and he went to work examining the injured climber._

 _"What were you two doing in this cave, anyway?" Everest asked. "It's pretty remote, you know?"_

 _"Well, that's kinda what we do." The black-haired climber replied. "I'm Damian and this is my partner, Glen. We run a photography blog, and we were devoting this month to cave pictures. I guess this'll teach us to look into caves before going in, huh?"_

 _"I should hope so!" Ryder replied. "You're really lucky that Everest here heard you yelling."_

 _"You… called them for us?" Glen asked the husky as Marshall ran the screen over him._

 _"Yep! Good thing you weren't too deep into the cave, huh?" Everest replied, looking down at a large rock lying next to Glen. "Did this have anything to do with it?"_

 _"Yeah, this cave seems pretty unstable." Damian opined. "Wish we knew that before we went in! This rock came down on us and Glen pushed me out of the way. Hit him right in the knee… had to go further in to find somewhere to prop up his leg."_

 _"You two got pretty lucky, huh?" Rubble added. "We better get you out of here. If this cave is dropping rocks, who knows where it might collapse next?"_

 _"Well, Glen: The bad news is your knee is definitely broken." Marshall concluded. "But the good news is the break isn't too bad. You two really are lucky. I'll patch you up for now and we'll help you out of here. Go see a doctor and get that looked at properly, OK?"_

 _"You're a lifesaver, little guy..." Glen replied._

 _With Glen's leg safely bandaged, the group started to venture out of the cave, the Paw Patrol content that they'd accomplished another rescue. With the cave entrance in sight, however, the contentment vanished in a hurry as a rumbling shook the cave, and with it the souls of those within._

 _"Wh-whoa!" Marshall yelled._

 _"CAVE-IN!" Rubble screamed, prompting everyone to move as fast as they could. Damian and Ryder desperately tried to support Glen as they hobbled behind the pups as fast they could._

 _Marshall and Everest moved fast enough to clear the cave entrance. Rubble was close behind, until he felt something strike his back. Rubble cried out as he tumbled to the floor from the force, the blow cushioned by his Pup Pack, which proceeded to shatter into pieces._

 _"Rubble!" Ryder cried in fear, as he and the climbers came up close behind him._

 _Rubble wanted to assure his owner that he was OK, if a little bruised, but all he could think about was the sheer amount of rocks falling around him. Silently, Rubble desperately dragged himself to his paws and summoned all of his strength to attempt to push forward once more, only to be cut off by another rock falling in front of him as Ryder passed him by. And another. Reflexively, Rubble then jumped the only way he could as his only means of escape was cut off: backwards. And in that moment, everything went black._

 _"RUBBLE! NOOOOOOO!" Ryder screamed at the top of his voice, pulling away from the climbers._

 _In that moment, Ryder prayed that he was only dreaming. That one of his darkest nightmares hadn't just come to life. For just then, for the next few minutes, the world started to fade around him. All sounds became muffled noise. His bones grew heavy and his stomach turned to stone. One of his pups had seemingly had the life crushed out of him._

 _Letting out a collective, uncontrolled scream of horror, Marshall and Everest charged forward, desperately clawing at the mass of rocks that blocked the cave entrance. The two cursed themselves for how unprepared they were. The one thing neither of them accounted for was one of their friends being killed on a mission like this. The Paw Patrol had just lost one of their own to something as unpredictable as a cave-in. Neither pup could accept this as they feebly clawed at the stone seperating them and Rubble._

 _"Come on! Come! On! Come! On! COME! ON! WHY?! ISN'T?! IT?! WORKING?!" Marshall screamed as he attempted to dig through the rock._

 _"Dig harder, Marshall!" Everest yelled back. "We can't lose Rubble! WE CAN'T!"_

 _The two were in denial. For all they knew, their friend had just been buried alive in an instant and there was absolutely nothing they could do about it but swipe at the rocks that had fallen before them in a vain attempt to break them as total despair started to set in for the pair of them._

 _Suddenly, their frantic, panicked screams were cut off by the sound of pained crying. Everyone froze in place at the muffled sobs of agony eminating through the rocks._

 _"Is… that..." Marshall stammered._

 _"Rubble! Come in! Please! Answer me!" Everest yelled as she activated her Pup Tag. After what felt like an eternity, something happened that took them all aback. Rubble answered._

 _"Rubble! Talk to me! Are you OK?! What happened?!" Everest shouted down her Tag._

 _"M-my… my l-g… It h-rts! I-it… -t… hu-ts! I… c-n't move!" Rubble sobbed, obviously in great pain. His voice came out crackling and laden with static, his Pup Tag having been damaged from his landing._

 _Marshall felt his heart sink. One of his friends was in total agony with a broken leg, and for once, he was incapable of doing a single thing about it._

 _"Don't cry, Marshall… Don't cry! Don't cry! DO! NOT! CRY!" he yelled at himself internally. He found it exceedingly hard to heed his own instructions when he felt so helpless._

 _"Rubble, just sit tight!" Ryder yelled behind Everest, having snapped out of his momentary stupor. "W-we'll think of something!"_

 _"R-R-der… H-lp me… ple-se..." Rubble sobbed despondently._

 _Ryder had to fight back his own tears at hearing one of his pups in such a helpless state. He swore to never allow his pups to get into a life-or-death situation like this, and just now, he'd completely failed. And despite being the one to come up with the plans, this time, he was drawing a blank. Even if they'd managed to destroy the wreckage – a feat now impossible with Rubble leaving his bulldozer in the cave entrance, getting it crushed into uselessness, how could they get Rubble safely out without the risk of another cave-in?_

 _After a pause of a few seconds, Ryder knew that the other pups would be needed, but how? The situation looked decidedly hopeless. Even Rocky's truck wouldn't have much in it to safely get Rubble out._

 _"Ryder?" Everest piped up. "This cave… There's a chance that there could be other ways out… There usually are, but… but…"_

 _"How would Rubble be able to get out, though?! His leg sounds really badly broken!" Marshall interjected._

 _"G-ys..." Rubble's shaky voice came over Everest's Pup Tag. "I can w-lk! I c-n move!"_

 _These words prompted a gasp from the three. "Rubble, you're moving?!" Ryder asked, amazed._

 _"Y-ah!" Rubble replied. "I c-n… kin-a move! I can wa- AAA-AAA-GHH!" Rubble cut himself off with a scream of pain._

 _"Rubble! That sounds really bad!" Marshall shouted. "You shouldn't move! Try to rest your leg!"_

 _"I c-n't do that M-rshall!" Rubble replied. "I d-n't like h-w th-s cave so-nds! Who kn-ws when it might c-ve in ag-in?! B-sides, didn't y-u just s-y th-re could be a w-y o-t? I c-n m-ke it, bad l-g or no!"_

 _Silence. The three of them tried to find the words to raise an objection to Rubble's plan, but at this point, they all had nothing. It was a choice none of them wanted to make: have Rubble look for a way out and risk his leg worsening, or leave him there, try to dig him out and risk the cave collapsing altogether? Ryder remained kneeled in the snow as his brain went into overdrive._

 _"Rubble…" Ryder finally spoke. "…stay put for now! We'll think of something! Don't go wandering off in the dark until we come back with a plan!"_

 _"R-der…" Rubble stammered. "Pl-ase h-rry! I d-n't -na d- -re! C-l t-e -rs! -n-t! -e -a-!"_

 _The signal finally died altogether with Rubble's cry for help. The next sound anyone heard was Ryder muttering encouragement to himself, trying to keep his spirits up despite his confidence currently being six feet under._

 _"OK, Ryder… It'll be fine… Don't panic… You can do this… We'll get him out… Be strong… Fear is the mind-killer…"_

 _Marshall and Everest shared terrified looks. Of all the people to get so badly scared, they never thought Ryder of all people would be among them. But eventually, Ryder fell silent, the vacant look of horror on his face shifting to one of determination for a few moments until he rose and stood on his feet._

 _"Pups..." he began. "I know we're all scared… but we can't lose our cool, now. Rubble needs us. I thought we'd just lost him… but now we have a chance. Do NOT waste it. Clear?"_

 _"Like glass." Marshall replied._

 _"Crystal." Everest added._

 _"Good." Ryder went on, drawing his Pup Pad. "Because ready or not, here we go."_

 _"Oh, Rubble… I'm so sorry I can't help you…" Marshall thought to himself, on the verge of tears. "Please… don't die on us… Please come back safe..."_

 _"Rubble..." Everest thought, trying her best to keep her fear in check. "Don't you dare do this to us… please..."_

 _"Paw Patrol! Lookout! Now! Hustle!" Ryder shouted down the Pup Pad, causing the pups at the Lookout to immediately snap to attention. Ryder never took that kind of tone when summoning them on a mission, so the anxiety didn't take long in setting in._

 _"Whoa, Wyder?" Zuma said with his eyes bugging out._

 _"Oh, boy..." Rocky muttered._

 _"Huh? Ulp..." Skye squeaked._

 _"'Hustle'? Uh-oh..." Chase mumbled to himself._

 _The pups didn't take long in blazing a trail to the elevator. It didn't take a genius to figure out that things had gotten dire. Despite this, Skye still had the time to stand outside the elevator with a perplexed expression._

 _"Er, Skye?" Chase asked, giving her a funny look._

 _"Uhh…" Skye replied._

 _By now, the pups were so used to Marshall doing something silly and smashing into all of them that it felt like there was a gaping hole in their routine. But the empty feeling was most uncomfortable to Skye. And with the feeling of something going very wrong indeed, the pups felt like they needed a little extra levity. Feeling like she had to fill the gap, she launched herself at the elevator with a loud yelp, landing with a resounding crash and scattering the pups across the elevator floor. Despite her efforts, all she could bring herself to do was give a vacant sigh as the other pups stared at her with a mix of amusement and shock._

 _"Not the same, huh, Skye?" Chase asked._

 _"Nope. Not even close..." Skye muttered, as the elevator began to ascend._

 _The four remaining pups leapt out of the elevator with Chase leading the charge in his spy gear. Unlike most occasions, Ryder watched them from the screen at the head of the room. Also unlike most occasions, Ryder wore a deathly-serious scowl, sending shivers down the spines of everyone present. As much as they all wanted to openly shudder, they all swallowed back their fear as Chase spoke up._

 _"Paw Patrol ready for action, Ryder, sir!"_

 _"Pups…" Ryder began. "I won't sugarcoat it… Things have gone south."_

 _"Coulda fooled me." Zuma quipped internally._

 _"Huh? How?" Skye asked with a hint of worry to her voice._

 _"This rescue's taken a turn for the worst. We got the climbers out OK, but we went into the cave to dig them out and… well..." Ryder began to slow down, becoming wary of breaking the news._

 _"W-What?! What happened?!" Rocky asked fearfully._

 _"The entrance collapsed while Rubble was still in there!" Ryder blurted out. "He's trapped!"_

 _It was a small miracle that nothing in the room moved with the force of the collective gasp that rose from the pups. Of course, they were no stranger to those in their own ranks getting into trouble, but rarely anything as life-threatening as a teammate getting trapped in a freezing cave. As if death itself cast a shadow over the team, a chill of dread spread to all four of them._

 _"NOOO!" Chase screamed in unrestrained horror, a cold feeling of utter failure seeping into his gut. "Tell me he's OK at least!"_

 _"I want to say he is, but some of the debris crushed his leg!" Ryder replied, amplifying the dreadful feeling in the room._

 _"Oh, no…" Skye mumbled in terror. "And Marshall can't even reach him to help him! He must be in so much pain!"_

 _"Why is this happening?!" Zuma shouted, fighting the temptation to start crying. "Wubble didn't do anything to desewve this!"_

 _"We've got to get him out of there! Please tell me you have a plan, Ryder!" Rocky pleaded._

 _"I have a plan, Rocky!" Ryder retorted. "But panicking isn't going to help! Before I tell you anything, we all have to calm down!"_

 _A few seconds passed as everyone caught their breath in silence. Hard though it was to keep their fear under control with one of their own in danger like that, their minds soon turned to the matter of it being down to them to rescue their trapped friend, and their faces turned to more focused ones._

 _"That's better." Ryder said. "I know this is a scary situation, but if we lose our cool now, we're more likely to screw up. And we can't afford that now. So it goes without saying that we're gonna need all paws on deck for this one. And as I said, I have a plan. Starting with…" Ryder began to slide his finger across the screen. "Rocky. I'll need you to find something in your truck to clear the debris from the cave entrance."_

 _"Green means go!" Rocky barked, with perhaps a little more enthusiasm than intended._

 _"Spy Chase." Ryder continued. "Once that's done, you'll fly your drone into the cave so we can guide Rubble out of there."_

 _"Super spy Chase is on the case!" Chase exclaimed, stomping his paws into the ground._

 _"Speaking of which…" Ryder slid a finger across the screen once more. "Skye. You're on scout duty. I'll need you to fly around the mountain to look for any other ways out of the cave. If you see anything, call us."_

 _"This pup's gotta fly!" Skye proclaimed, forgoing her usual flip in favor of standing there rigidly._

 _"Don't get careless, Skye." Ryder cautioned. "The weather over here is terrible. The wind speed is higher than ever. PLEASE fly carefully, OK? If it gets too rough, pull out of there at once."_

 _"Don't worry about me, Ryder, sir." Skye replied, not dropping her serious expression. "I've made plans for that since last time."_

 _"Marshall and Everest already have their tasks." Ryder went on. "They're going to go together to check on Rubble and get him to safety when he's out of that cave."_

 _"Not needed, huh?" Zuma thought to himself. "I guess that's good. For once, I don't think I wanna be part of a rescue…"_

 _"And finally: Zuma..." Ryder added."_

 _"…ah." Zuma thought. "Eh, whatever! Rubble needs us! I can't let him down!"_

 _"…I need you with me." Ryder continued. "The way things have gone already, I'm sure we're gonna need an extra set of paws."_

 _"Just tell me where to be, Wyder, sir!" Zuma replied._

 _"OK, pups. Remember this is for Rubble. We're getting him out of that cave and he's coming back home with us! Don't let him down!" Ryder commanded, to near-deafening agreement from his pups. Rubble was in a tight spot, so now it was time for the pups to do what they do best: help him out._

 _"Alright. Paw Patrol… move out!" Ryder yelled authoritively, eschewing his usual catchphrase and further reinforcing the severity of the situation._

 _The pups practically crushed one another as they tried to get onto the slide. The emergency was simply too dire to think about anything that wasn't Rubble. With as much speed as they could get away with, the remaining four pups blazed a trail for Jake's Mountain, praying the entire way that they weren't already too late._

* * *

 _ **Greetings. As much as it may surprise you all, I'm not dead. I'd like to apologise for taking so long in getting this out. Life has gotten... hectic in the month of December for me. As nice as it sounds, I can't really afford to spend every waking hour writing when I have a 9-5 job with staff shortages. Whenever I got home, I was simply too drained to even think about writing. Once more, I'm very sorry for keeping anyone who was waiting for this... well, waiting.**_

 _ **This one wasn't easy to write, either. Rubble's a surprisingly hard pup to write about. Contributed to a lot of cases of writer's block. Now aren't you glad I don't update as I write? Would've left you hanging for a long time waiting for chapters, I think. Honestly, this makes me slightly glad I have only one more fic left on my list to write before vanishing (more on that in a later chapter's note).**_

 _ **On the subject of which, my schedule will be different when uploading this one. In this case, I'll be uploading once every TWO days rather than once every SINGLE day. That way I won't be watching the clock for the exact right minute to upload. I hope you all enjoy it, despite the difficulties I had writing it. Thanks for listening. See you in two days.**_


	2. A Cold Memory

"A cave-in?!" Rubble yelled, his shock overpowering his fatigue and pain. "And I broke my leg?!"

"We were all so worried..." Marshall whispered. "The climbers made it out OK, but… it cost us way too much..."

Rubble laid back mouth agape. Just how much danger was he in?! He was almost afraid to find out, but with his questions weighing even more heavily on him, there was no taking it back now. Besides, with Marshall explaining what was going on, Rubble's memories of the event were starting to return, as piece meal as they were.

"Did I hit my head, though? Why can't I remember any of this?" Rubble asked.

"You did, but not that bad." Marshall replied. "A head wound that made you lose your memory would more likely kill you. You're struggling to remember because of the hypothermia."

"Hyper… what-now?" Rubble gave the dalmatian a confused look.

"Oh, yeah..." Marshall quickly facepalmed, remembering that Rubble wouldn't be familiar with medical terms. "Hypothermia: it's when the body gets too cold. Like, WAY too cold. One of the symptoms is memory-loss..."

Marshall was clearly struggling to explain. Rubble could only wonder if hypothermia was really that bad. It would explain why Rubble was wrapped up in blankets in a bed. But cold didn't usually linger that long… Did it?

"Everest told me all about it. It's… dangerous…"

"'Dangerous'?" Rubble parroted. "Dangerous how?"

"Dangerous because the body can't keep up with how cold it gets!" Marshall replied, obviously on edge. "In a lot of cases, it's life-threatening!"

Life-threatening.

The phrase stopped Rubble cold, proverbially-speaking. The pups were acting like he'd died, but all this time, he'd thought they were worrying too much. But now the team's medic just spelled it out for him. Slowly, a feeling of mortal dread started to envelop the bulldog.

"Are you saying… I… nearly died?" Rubble whispered.

Marshall paused. Was there really any way of putting this gently? Rubble was plainly starting to become scared at being confronted with the prospect of his own mortality. Rubble was the youngest pup out of all of them, and none of them liked the idea that their line of work meant that they dealt with the idea that they might not come back home. Marshall had to think carefully about what to say next. As stressed as he was, he couldn't risk making Rubble feel even worse.

"I wouldn't say that, Rubble..." Marshall finally spoke up. "I mean, you got hurt, but we knew what to do. You've got us, so you've got nothing to worry about."

More silence. Rubble had closed his eyes. It looked like he was trying to process what Marshall just said. Perhaps he was trying to keep it together? Marshall didn't blame him one bit. If that was the case, he could join the club.

"Marshall… was the cave that cold?" Rubble asked, his eyes still closed.

"Not the cave itself." Marshall replied. "But more like what happened when you left. See-

Marshall found himself cut off by the sound of the dog door being used to his side. He turned around to see almost of the pups come filing into the room. First came Everest, followed by Skye, Chase and then Rocky.

"Oh my gosh… Rubble! Are you OK?!" Skye barked, practically leaping across the room and landing on Rubble's bed.

"You're awake!" Rocky added, running up to the bed and joining Skye and Marshall. "Oh, thank goodness!"

"Guys, take it easy with him!" Everest yelled after them. "He's still in a bad way!"

"Rocky, Skye..." Rubble whispered. "What's going on?"

The two shot each other a surprised look.

"Guys, before you grill him, he can't remember what happened." Marshall interjected, deciding to nip their question in the bud.

"Can't remember?" Rocky echoed.

"Why?" Skye asked.

"Because of his hypothermia." Everest answered. "It can really take you out of the loop. One of the symptoms is memory-loss, after all."

"It hit him hard." Marshall said. "Try to go easy on him. By the way, where's Ryder?"

"He said he needed a minute." Rocky replied, wearing an identical expression of shock to Skye. "He'll come by later."

Rocky, of course, knew exactly why Ryder needed a minute. As the pups waited for word from Marshall and Everest, they didn't see hide nor hair of their owner. And after the rescue, he hadn't said a word. And as much as Rocky tried to convince himself that he was hearing things, he could swear that he heard crying coming from somewhere in the resort at one point.

"Chase?" Rubble finally piped up. "Are you, er… OK?"

Chase hadn't said a word since entering the room, but the look of disbelief on his face never faded. It was as if a statue had been brought into the room. A few seconds after Rubble addressed him, Chase slowly walked up to the bed his friend lay in and hopped up in front of him. Chase continued to stare at Rubble in disbelief, before dropping down and throwing his arms around him in a tight hug.

"Rubble, don't DO that to me!" Chase said, his voice muffled with his snout buried in Rubble's pillows.

"Chase…" Rubble laid back and allowed Chase to hug him, despite it hurting a little bit. "...was it really that bad?"

"Of course it was!" Chase shot back. "In fact, it was worse!"

"Well, so much for softly-softly..." Marshall thought to himself in annoyance.

"I don't think I've ever been so scared!" Chase continued. "Do you have any idea how close we were to losing you?! I could've stopped this from happening! But I let you go instead, and look what happened!"

The others looked on in surprise. "THAT was sudden..." Everest thought.

"Huh? Where did THIS come from?!" Marshall thought.

"...this is… my fault…" Chase went on, quietly. "I… I failed you..."

"Huh?" Rubble replied quizzically. "You? But how could this be your fault? You weren't even there at first."

"That's the point!" Chase broke away and looked Rubble right in the eyes. "I'm supposed to be keeping everyone safe, and here I am standing over a friend with a broken leg and hypothermia!"

"But Chase, you helped him out of the cave, didn't you?!" Skye said. "If it wasn't for your drone..."

"Drone?" Rubble parroted. "Is that how I got out of the cave?"

Chase froze. He was about to open his mouth to continue arguing, but Rubble's question made him remember that he still had a responsibility for helping his friend heal, as painful as the memories were. Besides, Chase felt like enough of a failure that he at least owed Rubble that much. He let out a sigh.

"That's right, Rubble. We needed my drone to guide you out of there. We all tried to get to the cave as fast as we could..."

* * *

 _Time had ground to a halt for the pups and their owner. As fast as they travelled, it simply wasn't enough. The unthinkable had happened – one of their own was in mortal danger. None of them felt even the slightest hint of excitement that they would usually have when trouble was afoot._

 _Chase in particular felt like throwing up the entire way. As the lead pup, he felt responsibility for keeping everyone safe and happy, and now one of them was injured and possibly close to death. Making matters worse is that the youngest of them had suffered this terrible fate. All he could think about was how he'd give anything to see Rubble returned to them safely as the Paw Patrol sped through the snowy mountains, pleading that they could get Rubble out safe._

 _"We're coming up on the hill, now." Skye's voice came through the boys' Pup Tags. "I'll break off and start scouting here."_

 _The wind was picking up. The snow was falling heavily. Chase's dread was growing. "Skye… Be safe… I don't want to lose you, too..." Chase replied._

 _"Chase, how could you talk like that?!" Rocky shouted. "We have a chance here, and you've given up already?!"_

 _Chase gave himself a quick facepalm. "Er, I mean..." he stammered. "We've got one pup in danger already… I don't want to make it two..."_

 _"Chase, trust me, I'll be fine." Skye reassured him. "If the weather starts getting too rough, I'll land. You don't have to worry about me. Focus on Rubble, OK? For me."_

 _The storm of worry continued to rage inside Chase, but with the realization that he couldn't let his fears get in the way of such an important mission, he decided to put them aside for now. "OK, Skye… I trust you." Chase went on._

 _"Thanks a lot, Chase. I'll be careful." Skye replied. "Skye out."_

 _As the helicopter took a turn to the right, Chase, Rocky and Zuma continued to drive up the plowed road that Everest had left behind, eventually being met with Ryder, Marshall and Everest standing at the caved-in entrance containing Rubble's smashed bulldozer. The pups parked their vehicles next to those of Marshall, Ryder and Everest, hopping down and frantically running over to greet their owner._

 _"Pups. Thanks for hurrying." Ryder began. "As you know, things don't look good. Rubble managed to free his leg, but that cave is seriously dark. Rubble won't be able to see a thing. And that's why we need Chase's drone. If there's another way out, Rubble will need guiding."_

 _"But we won't be able to get it in without getting those rocks out of the way!" Rocky interrupted. "I'm sure I've got something that can help!"_

 _The mixed breed sprinted over to his truck to look for an answer to their conundrum._

 _"Huwwy, Wocky!" Zuma called after him._

 _"Ryder, sir, what happened to the climbers?" Chase asked._

 _"Don't worry, we sent them on their way. One of them has a fractured knee, but Marshall helped patch him up. He'll hold until he can get help." Ryder replied._

 _Everyone could only watch on as junk came flying out of Rocky's truck, none of it looking conducive to getting through the debris blocking their way._

 _"C'mon, c'mon… surfboard, no… Marshall's old hose, no… Umbrella, no… Oh, for the love of… come ON, Tracker… urgh, gross…"_

 _"I thought I just heard something interesting..." Everest mused. "But I think I'll just let it go for now."_

 _"Might be smart." Marshall added._

 _"Wait! YES!" Rocky shouted, sending a pickaxe flying from the back of his truck. "This'll work nicely! Why trash it when you can stash it?!"_

 _"Good job, Rocky!" Ryder replied, running over and snatching up the tool. "This'll break through those rocks!"_

 _Ryder ran and repositioned himself next to the pile of debris that seperated the group and their beloved construction pup. "Brace yourself, Rubble!" Ryder shouted, bending his knees and readying himself to swing._

 _Rubble couldn't help but jump as the loud bang of steel meeting rock rang out next to him. He didn't hear a word of Ryder's warning, for even if it had been unmuffled, Rubble was too busy trying to keep his desire to panic and cry under control. He was completely alone with the pitch-black darkness and goodness-only-knows what else for the first time in his life. Was he going to die? Could he even find a way out with his broken leg? All these questions and unpleasant thoughts overflowed in Rubble's head as a small measure of light suddenly broke through the rocks, momentarily dazzling the injured bulldog._

 _"Rubble! Are you OK in there?!" Ryder's voice came through the small opening._

 _"Ryder!" Rubble yelled. "Have you got a plan?! I wanna go home!"_

 _"I do, Rubble!" Ryder replied. "But I need you to keep it together! I know its scary, but everyone's here! We're all gonna do our part to get you out safe! Now here's what's gonna happen..."_

 _Ryder shouted his plan to Rubble through the gap that he'd just created. He apologised for sending Chase's drone rather than breaking him out. They may have the means of breaking down the rocks, but the couldn't risk another cave-in with Rubble the way he was. Rubble noted that the cave seemed unstable enough anyway, with a few more rocks falling from the ceiling as the pups were arriving. The clock was ticking to escape._

 _Despite everything, Rubble's heart began to fill with hope as Ryder relayed the plan. If he stayed strong, if he did what he was told, if he worked with the others, there was hope that he could get out safely and alive. As Ryder finished up, Rubble realized that he had to be brave. Now more than ever. He'd gone around calling himself a Super Pup in the past. The time had come for him to live up to that title._

 _"...where Marshall and Everest will be waiting for you. And we've got Zuma lending a paw, too. I promise. We're getting you out of there. Does that sound good?" Ryder concluded._

 _"Grr… You bet, Ryder!" Rubble barked. "This bum leg of mine won't- OWWWWWWWWWW! Slow… me down!"_

 _Ryder sighed. On one hand, his pup seemed to be in far higher spirits than before. But on the other, he was still badly hurt. Not only could they not do a thing about his pain right now, but the plan hinged on him being able to drag himself to safety with Chase's help. Ryder swallowed back his worry, praying that Rubble could fight through the pain._

 _"Rubble… I know you can do it…" Ryder said. "But we can't waste any more time! Get ready to move! I'm not sure how stable this cave is!"_

 _"Let's dig it!" Rubble replied, bringing a momentary smile of relief to Ryder's face._

 _Ryder hopped down from the pile of debris. "Chase! Is your drone ready?"_

 _"Incoming!" Chase shouted back, as the drone slowly buzzed over Ryder's head._

 _Ryder had cut it closer than he would've liked with his axework, but mercifully, the drone was small enough to fit through the opening. But only just._

 _"Rubble… Be safe!" Ryder yelled through the opening._

 _"Just watch, Ryder! I'll be- AAAAAGH! ...fine!" Rubble replied, trying to keep it together through the immense pain._

 _From outside, Ryder could only listen to a faint "Ow… OW! Agh-! Agh..." as the buzz of the drone faded into the distance, with Rubble following, presumably, as best he could. The faint sounds were soon cut off by another boulder falling into place, blocking off the cave entrance once more._

 _Rubble's willpower was quite remarkable for such a young pup in such a frightening situation. Now all they could do was pray. Except for Chase. It looked as if a statue had just attached itself to his truck, unresponsive to the world around it. The spy pup was obviously focused on nothing but bringing his friend back, his eyes slanted in a determined glare._

 _Ryder could only drag himself back towards the rest of the group. Looking over the pups, the only expression he could see was fear. Fear for their friend's life. Ryder, of course, didn't blame them one bit. After all, he was right there with them. It looked like there were more statues than just Chase lying around as everyone stared into space._

 _Once more, time had slowed to a crawl. With no word from Skye and Chase concentrating on his drone, the snowy mountains had fallen as quiet as a graveyard. The silence was only broken several minutes later by Rocky._

 _"Guys… Rubble's gonna be OK, right? He's… not gonna die, is he?"_

 _"ROCKY!" Marshall bellowed, drawing startled glances from all but Ryder and Chase._

 _"Marshall, easy!" Ryder commanded. "Rocky, I know you're scared, but talk like that is not helpful."_

 _"I'm sorry, but… I just want Rubble to get out OK… I don't wanna lose him… I don't want… our friend to..." Rocky's voice started to crack with emotion, openly showing how scared he was._

 _Marshall began to feel guilty for yelling, seeing how frightened the mixed breed was. It wasn't as if Marshall had room to talk, after all. "Rocky… I'm sorry..."_

 _"D-don't apologise, Marshall… I'm s-sorry I'm being so..." Rocky stammered._

 _"Don't cry, Rocky..." Ryder whispered, putting a hand on Rocky's head. "No crying until it's over. You know the rules."_

 _Rocky glanced up at Ryder, slowly managing to bring himself back under control. "We… will bring him back..." Rocky squeaked. "...won't we?"_

 _"Yes, Rocky." Ryder replied firmly. "We're getting him back no matter what. It's OK to be scared. You're not alone."_

 _It was a small miracle that none of the pups picked up on the uncertainty in Ryder's voice. Rocky had said almost exactly what he was thinking. The thought of Rubble meeting his maker hadn't left Ryder's head throughout the entire mission, and he felt utterly sick the entire time. Despite this, the cloud of fear and doubt in his head was swiftly blown away by the beeping of his Pup Pad. As he fumbled for it, he found that Skye was calling him._

 _With a gasp, Ryder quickly answered it, only to be greeted with the sight of Skye being battered by the high winds and snow. The signal was suffering for it as well, giving Skye a slow, robotic twang to her voice._

 _"Ryder, sir! Come in!" Skye said, raising her voice to make herself heard over the high winds._

 _"Skye! Any news?!" Ryder practically demanded._

 _"I've found something!" Skye replied. Ryder didn't think it was possible, but he felt his hopes rise slightly._

 _"I can see another entrance!" she continued. "It looks like it's further down! I think Rubble could get out that way! But..."_

 _"'But'?" Ryder, Marshall, Zuma, Rocky and Everest echoed._

 _"...it's next to a huge lake… And it looks like the… whoooaa, no!" Skye cut herself off as she struggled to control her helicopter._

 _"Skye!" Ryder yelled._

 _"What's going on back there?!" Chase yelled in fear from his truck, unable to take his eyes off his drone screen._

 _"Skye! Are you OK?! Answer me! Hey!" Ryder shouted, the terror in his voice at seeing another pup in danger evident. The pause of five seconds was utterly gut-wrenching for the group._

 _"That was WAY too close!" Skye eventually spoke up, to a collective sigh of relief from the entire group. "I'm sorry, Ryder, but this is getting too dangerous! I think I've gotta touch down!"_

 _"Land your helicopter NOW, Skye!" Ryder commanded. "I won't have you in danger, too!"_

 _"You don't have to tell me twice!" Skye replied. "Skye out!"_

 _As the feed cut out, Ryder turned back to the group of four pups._

 _"Did… she just say it was next to a lake?" Everest asked._

 _"Yeah, it sounded like she wanted to say something else, too..." Zuma added. "...but what?"_

 _"It's a good thing we brought Zuma, right?" Marshall opined._

 _"Definitely." Ryder replied. "So here's what we're gonna do, now. Everest, Marshall, Zuma. I'm going to send Skye's co-ordinates to your Pup Tags. I want you all to go and join her and wait for Rubble by that lake."_

 _As Ryder spoke, he pressed a few buttons on his Pup Pad, and sure enough, a holographic map sprang forth from the Pup Tags of the three pups with Skye's location marked._

 _"Hmm… Hey!" Everest interjected. "I know where that is! I've been to that lake before! If you two follow me, I'll show you the quickest way there!"_

 _"You heard the lady!" Marshall barked as he lead the way to their vehicles with Zuma hot on his paws._

 _"Hey, wait up!" Everest shouted after them, running for her plow._

 _And so Rocky and Ryder watched as the trio's vehicles tore down the hill, to what they hoped was Rubble's salvation. As the back of Zuma's hovercraft disappeared into the distance, Ryder and Rocky turned their attention back to Chase, who hadn't moved at all._

 _"What do you think is going through his head?" Rocky whispered._

 _"If I know Chase..." Ryder whispered back. "…and of course I know Chase… he's probably just as scared as the rest of us..."_

 _"Rubble, why? Why did it have to be you?" Chase thought to himself as he steered his drone through the caverns, not taking its camera off of Rubble the entire time. "I've… failed you. I should be keeping everyone safe! Not trying to help them out of some dark cave with a broken leg! Please, Rubble… stay with me… And Skye… Please be OK… I couldn't deal with either of you dying… please…"_

 _Chase's thoughts only lasted so long before he heard a sound come from his drone's audio feed. The sound of gravel._

 _The only light in the cave came from the drone that currently floated above Rubble's head. Despite the tremendous pain from his broken leg, the familiar buzz of the machine that served as his guiding light was quite comforting to the bulldog. As straightforward as the cave's layout was, the sheer drops and winding passages kept Rubble on the toes he had left. If he got stuck here… Rubble froze and shook his head, trying to keep that terrifying thought at bay as he willed himself forward._

 _"Gotta… keep… going… Not… gonna… die…" Rubble repeatedly chanted through gritted teeth, doing his best to fight through the pain. Rubble had to clear some big messes in his time, but this trumped them all. What if all that awaited him was a dead end? And the rocks just kept falling. Thankfully nowhere near him, but the fact that they were falling in the first place was scary enough. As he did battle with both his thoughts and his crushed leg, it took him a few seconds to notice the gravel shifting under his paws._

 _"Gotta… keep… huh?" Rubble cut himself off as he noticed how slippery his footing was and how uneven the ground was becoming. Before Rubble could change course, the floor gave way from underneath him, sending him crashing to the ground with a scream of agony as his bad leg was further agitated and he slid into the darkness awaiting him. And while he couldn't hear it, the trio at the cave entrance screamed their friend's name loudly, all seeming lost in that moment as Rubble tumbled head-over-paws into the unknown._


	3. Hello Despair

"I'm just going by what Skye told me, here, but-"

Chase found himself cut off as he heard the door at the back of the room opening. The pups all turned to see Ryder standing in the doorway, mouth agape. The boy wasn't looking at all like his usual self, with red, bloodshot eyes and a tear-streaked face. The pups couldn't help but collectively gulp at the sight of their owner like this.

"Ryder?" Rubble piped up.

Ryder wasted no time in quickly gliding across the room, sitting on the bed and scooping Rubble into his arms, hugging him tightly and breathing heavily. Now the situation really hit home for Rubble. The only time Ryder could be made to act this frightened is if one of the pups was in serious danger. Rubble fought back tears as Ryder held the blanket-wrapped pup closely. As much as his body ached and his leg had flared up, Rubble had barely noticed as he nuzzled tightly into Ryder's neck.

"Pups… thank you so much..." Ryder whispered.

The pups didn't reply, electing to simply watch on, waiting for Ryder to eventually lower Rubble back into bed.

"Ryder…" Rubble squeaked, still trying not to cry. "...did I… really come that close to… to… dying?"

Ryder could only sigh. "I can't lie… We all thought we'd lost you..." Ryder's voice was hoarse and strained. Had he really been crying that much? "We owe Zuma a lot..."

"Zuma?" Rubble replied quietly. "Hey, speaking of which, where IS Zuma?" Rubble realized upon hearing the labrador's name that he hadn't seen Zuma at all since he woke up.

"Asleep." Marshall replied. "He saved you, you know. I think we owe it to him that you're here now."

"I'm… not sure I wanna know, but… what… did Zuma do?" Rubble asked.

Rubble was dreading finding out. All the evidence to him nearly dying in the mountains was starting to pile up. How could he have had the courage to push through that cave with a broken leg? And what could Zuma have done to render him out of action like this?

"Rubble..." Skye began. "You probably won't wanna hear this… But… I talked to Marshall and Everest for a while..."

* * *

 _"And you're sure you're not hurt?" Marshall inquired for what had to be the fourth time._

 _"Marshall, seriously, it was just a rough landing. I'm not hurt at all!" Skye tried to reassure him._

 _"But look at your helicopter! That's gonna be a weal headache to fix!" Zuma added._

 _"Don't remind me… But that could've been me, right? I'M. FINE." Skye insisted._

 _Skye was a little annoyed with herself for not seeing Marshall's questions coming. He was always one to make a fuss over them if one of them seemed hurt, and when the pups saw her standing by her scratched-up, dented helicopter after the wind caught it mid-landing and blew it into some nearby trees, they all immediately ran to her, obviously fretting that she'd been seriously hurt. Perhaps with an injured Rubble being cut off from them, they needed more convincing than usual?_

 _"Well… if you're sure…" Everest said._

 _"Everest, for the millionth time, I am!" Skye replied with a hint of annoyance. "Look, it's sweet that you're all worried about me, but you're worrying about the wrong pup."_

 _"There's no wrong pup to worry about, today..." Marshall retorted internally._

 _"Well, anyway..." Zuma decided to change the subject. "You were twying to say something when you called us eawlier, wight?"_

 _Skye's eyes widened. "Oh, yeah! I almost forgot!"_

 _She quietly gestured to the lake with her paw. As difficult as it was to make out from the raging snowstorm, there was unmistakably a cave mouth across a huge body of water, with patches of unstable-looking ice dotted around. A trail of ice snaked its way from the cave mouth to the lake in front of the pups at the crash site. Perhaps once it was a feasible walkway? If so, that certainly wasn't the case anymore._

 _"I was trying to tell you how thin all the ice looked." Skye explained. "I'm… not sure if Rubble can walk on it. Even if he gets out, he won't have anywhere to go..."_

 _"Leave THAT to me." Zuma interjected. "This has to be why I was bwought along, wight? I can save him the twip over that thin ice."_

 _"You read my mind, Zuma." Everest replied. "That water is well below-freezing. Even if Rubble's leg wasn't broken, if the ice breaks and he falls in… He'll probably-"_

 _"DON'T! SAY IT!" Marshall snapped, glaring daggers at the husky._

 _The atmosphere shifted immediately at the dalmatian's abrupt outburst. "Marshall!" Skye yelled back with an appalled tone._

 _"Dude! Not cool!" Zuma added, mouth hanging open slightly._

 _"Marshall…" Everest whispered in fright._

 _Not once had she, or any of them ever seen Marshall get like this. All they could bring themselves to do was stare at him, trying to process what they just saw. The sight of a pup as sweet as Marshall suddenly snapping at one of his friends proved difficult to comprehend. But however slowly, Marshall's intense glare shifted to an expression of abject remorse, accompanied by a short gasp. It didn't seem to dawn on him that he'd just suddenly yelled at one of his closest friends either. And now that what he just did had sunk in, he soon felt his stomach turning._

 _"O-oh… Oh, no! Everest! I'm so, SO sorry!" Marshall stammered through the paw he'd placed over his mouth. "I-I didn't mean to say that! I didn't mean to yell at you! P-Please don't be mad at me!"_

 _A deep sigh was all that escaped Everest and Skye's lips._

 _"Oh, Marshall…" Everest sighed. "I can't be mad at you, now… You're just as nervous as all of us, right?"_

 _"There's no shame in being scared, you know?" Skye added._

 _"Dude, if you wanna let it out, we're listening." Zuma said._

 _Marshall looked down at the floor, the weight of his guilt practically forcing his head down. "OK… Fine, you got me." he mumbled. "I'm scared. Actually, no. Strike that. TERRIFIED. I've done a lot of scary things. I've fought fires, I've flown through the air, I've had stage fright… But a friend dying…? I… I just can't deal with it…" Marshall's voice cracked as he fought to suppress tears. The other pups remained quiet, listening as Marshall vented his fears._

 _"The reason I've tried to keep a lid on it when the shock wore off is because a fire pup has to keep his cool no matter how bad things get… But I've never seen anyone, least of all one of my friends, in such a life-threatening situation… where I couldn't do anything to help…" Marshall paused and swallowed several times before continuing. "That's why I'm so scared…" he concluded, his voice now a whimper. "I'm really trying… but I'm… scared…"_

 _"Marshall..." Skye whispered. "You make it sound like you're alone in thinking that. I don't want to be sitting on my paws while my friend is in so much danger! Rubble's stuck in a freezing cave with a bad leg and we're all just sitting around?!"_

 _"I've had some bad rescues in my time..." Everest added. "...but none of them involved one of my friends, either. We're ALL scared, here! None of us are gonna judge you for that!"_

 _"See?" Zuma asked quietly with a paw on Marshall's back. "We gotta keep it together, but don't twy and hide how scawed you are, either. Like Skye and Evewest just said, you're not alone. But wight now, all we can do is wait for our tuwns. Then we put our all into getting Wubble home safe." Zuma then moved Marshall's gaze to meet his own. "Wubble's counting on you to fix him up later. You got this."_

 _Marshall moved away from Zuma and took a deep breath. "You… You're right. All of you. Rubble's counting on all of us. And Chase has the whole 'get him out of the cave' thing handled. We can do this… right?"_

 _"Duh!" Everest replied._

 _"We're the Paw Patrol aren't we?!" Skye barked. "We haven't screwed up on an emergency before! We're not about to start now!"_

 _"I think you got your answer, dude." Zuma added with a smile. "Wubble's in good paws, isn't he?"_

 _"He sure is, Zuma..." Marshall replied. "...and… thanks. Thank you all."_

 _"Thank us later, dude." Zuma said. "Now if you'll all excuse me: Weady, set… erm… DON'T get wet!"_

 _With these words, Zuma left the three giggling pups behind him, happy to have granted them at least a little bit of solace, as he took off running towards his hovercraft._

 _"Anyway, it's like Everest said." Marshall continued, finally having the confidence to get down to brass tacks. "That water would be pretty cold anyway, but a snowstorm like this would just make it worse. Even if Rubble's leg wasn't broken, he CAN'T fall in."_

 _"The last thing he needs on top of a broken leg is hypothermia." Everest concurred. "I've seen what that can do to a human, but not a pup."_

 _"Well with Zuma around, he won't have to, will he?" Skye asked as Zuma's hovercraft drove past them and splashed down into the lake. "But I'm a little afraid to ask… how cold could it be?"_

 _"Do you REALLY wanna find out?" Everest asked._

 _Skye paused for a while, as if seriously contemplating the choice. "...I'm good."_

 _"That's what I-" Marshall paused, turning towards the cave mouth with his ears pricked up. "Hey. You hear that?"_

 _If you'd asked Rubble if things could've gotten much worse a couple of minutes ago, he would have answered in the negative. Now, however, he wasn't so sure. His leg was already hurting more than he ever thought possible, but now he was laying on his back, having been scraped up all over from the fall down the gravel-covered slope, but also with a massive bruise from landing hard on his side, with a matching one on his head. Worse is that he had no idea where Chase's drone had gone. Once again, he was completely alone in the dark, badly-wounded and with help nowhere in sight. What was worse was that a faint rumbling sounded in the distance. It sounded like the cave was caving in even further. And once more, a terrifying thought made its way into the bulldog's head:_

 _"Am I going to die?"_

 _Rubble couldn't keep from crying in pain and despair as he reflected on the mission up until now. It was supposed to be a routine operation. And it had taken more of a turn for the worst than any of them had even dreamed. He only came in case he was needed to dig out any further wreckage, and now he was closer to death than ever. But eventually, he drifted into thinking how the others would feel. How scared they were. How stressed they sounded. He thought about Ryder's terrified screaming. He thought about Marshall and Everest's desperate cries. With those reactions, he had to wonder how everyone else would take him dying?_

 _Rubble's tears slowly dried up as this question weighed on his mind. If he died here, obviously the others would be distraught, wouldn't they? Chase always freaked out whenever one of them got hurt, Skye was always one to make a fuss if one of them was in a bad way, and after Zuma got into a tight spot with the Mer-Pups, Rocky had nightmares for days. And had Zuma even experienced death before?_

 _"No… NO!" Rubble yelled to himself, dragging himself to his paws, a feat more difficult than the pup gave it credit for, considering how badly hurt he was. "I'm getting out of here!" As he strained to move forward, the area before him lit up once more and a familiar buzz sounded behind him. Turning to the source of the mysterious light and sound with great difficulty, the fear in Rubble's heart eroded further. Chase's drone had found him once more._

 _Somehow, Rubble was able to sense the relief on the other side of the device. If he could've heard Ryder, Rocky and Chase, he would have heard one of the loudest sighs of relief in the world. At the same time, Rubble let off one of his own as he strained under the weight of his wounds._

 _"Good to see you again, Droney..." Rubble panted. "I don't know about you, but I'm sick of this place already."_

 _Looking around him, he noticed that there was a large set of uneven rocks behind him next to the long, gravel-bound slope he'd just rolled down. Rubble snarled in irritation at having not been able to see the set of rocks. Even with a bad leg, he could've easily hopped his way down there and avoided getting hurt even more badly!_

 _"At least I'm still on track to the exit… I hope..." Rubble thought to himself as the drone flew ahead and he began to drag himself behind it once more, hope burning anew in his belly._

 _It had felt like an eternity already. Barely a few minutes had passed of Rubble walking through the dark cave, but it had felt like a days-long slog for everyone involved. The cave seemed to have no end in sight, and despite his willpower pushing him forward, Rubble's body was starting to run on fumes. As much as Rubble repeated in his head that he wasn't going to die here and that he'd see everyone again, trying to fight off the creeping sensation of doubt was starting to become a chore._

 _"Does this cave even have an end?" Chase asked._

 _"Its gotta, right?" Rocky replied. "Have you seen any other ways to go?"_

 _"Keep going, Chase. It's long, but straightforward enough by the looks of it." Ryder encouraged._

 _"I'm trying, but it doesn't look like Rubble…" Chase cut himself off as he squinted at the screen. "Huh. Is it me, or did it get… brighter?" he wondered aloud._

 _Rocky moved next to him and studied the screen. "Uhh… Hey… It is! I- I think Rubble might be near the exit!"_

 _"Wait." Chase cautioned. "Don't jump to conclusions. Let's see what that light is before celebrating."_

 _Ryder said nothing in response to this, instead resorting to silent prayer that Rubble's nightmare could finally end, begging the fates above for Rubble to be OK after all._

 _"Uh-oh. You know what they say about lights at the end of the tunnel." Rubble joked to himself as he tried to drag himself towards whatever the light that had started to fill the cave was. There was no mistaking it, the cave was starting to get steadily brighter. Bright enough so that the drone wasn't needed anymore. Rubble rounded the next corner with the drone, only to feel his feet give out from underneath him once more._

 _"NOOOOOT AGAAAAAIIIIIN!" Rubble screamed as he slid down yet another gravel slope, the light growing ever brighter all the while. This time, the only sound that came from the entrance team was a loud gasp. They could all only hope that Rubble was sliding towards freedom._

 _"Hey. You hear that?" Marshall asked, turning towards a noise that cut through the roar of the snowstorm._

 _"It sounds like… rocks?" Skye replied uncertainly._

 _"And a scream?" Everest added with a note of dread._

 _They noticed that Zuma was positioned by the small amount of ice next to the mouth of the cave. While the snow made making out his face difficult, they noticed he was paying rapt attention to the sounds coming from the cave. And sure enough, after a while, the cave spat out a battered and scraped-looking Rubble, who went skidding across the floor and onto the ice._

 _"RUBBLE!" The three pups yelled after a loud gasp of their own. Their spirits lifted near-immediately at finally seeing their friend free from the cave. Now it was all down to the wide-eyed Zuma. All eyes were on the labrador, now, including those of the drone that eventually followed Rubble out of the cave._

 _"Wubble, I know it huwts, but I need you to listen to me!" Zuma yelled through the snow from his hovercraft. "That ice is super-thin! I need you to come to me vewy, VEWY slowly! I'll use my buoy, so you climb on and I'll take you to Mawshall! Got it?!"_

 _Rubble didn't reply beyond looking at Zuma and slowly nodding as he carefully picked himself back up. Now that he was out of the cave, he was feeling the vicious windy blades of the snowstorm tearing at him more than ever, resulting in him trembling and struggling to stand even more. But with his ticket home right in front of him, there was no sense in giving up now. Slowly, Rubble began to take his first steps across the ice towards Zuma._

 _But very quickly, fate had revealed to the Paw Patrol that it was not to be. In the moment that Rubble moved his weight from one paw to the other, in the blink of an eye, the ice beneath him gave way and the bulldog vanished beneath the freezing depths without even having the time to cry out. The only sound that came from him was a splash that may as well have been a death knell._

 _Seven identical, piercing screams of horror rose from the mountain in the following seconds. And there was no louder scream than that of Ryder's. In that moment, all was completely lost. What had started as a simple rescue mission had turned into one of the blackest days in any of the team's lives. They had all set out that day to rescue their friend from a situation more dangerous than any of them could have imagined._

 _And at the worst time, the Paw Patrol had completely and utterly failed._


	4. Better Off Forgotten

"You may have been in cold water before, but… this was way worse…" Ryder whispered with his eyes squeezed shut. "Even Zuma struggled with it… But he jumped in to save you anyway… If it wasn't for him..."

Ryder's eyes flicked open once more when he heard a sniffle and whimper from in front of him. His heart sank when he saw that the sounds came from the bedridden Rubble, who was staring up at him with his eyes filled with tears and an expression of terror plastered across his face.

"So it's… i-it's true… I-I almost died out there!" Rubble sobbed, beginning to break down entirely. "W-why?! Wh-why did this happen?! W-wh-why is my luck s-so bad?! WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE ANY OF THIS?!"

"But Rubble, it's OK! We all got you out!" Rocky frantically attempted to reassure the bulldog.

"NO IT'S NOT!" Rubble screamed back. "DON'T YOU GET IT?! I NEARLY DIED!"

At this point, Rubble was simply too far-gone to listen to anyone. The fear of his forgotten near-death experience had plowed into him like a train. Never before had he come so close to his demise, and the pups recounting the painful experience to him frightened him like nothing else, leaving him wailing and crying where he lay.

"Hey, hey, easy, Rubble, easy… It's OK..." Ryder whispered soothingly, picking Rubble up and hugging him closely once more, desperately trying to calm Rubble down without succumbing to the urge to cry with him. The other pups watched on. Chase and Marshall could only grit their teeth and look away, wanting to join in for different reasons. Chase out of guilt, and Marshall out of stress.

Everest and Skye, however, swiftly decided that their presence would only end up making things worse, and that perhaps Rubble needed some alone time with Ryder. Slowly, Skye hopped off the bed, landing next to Everest and the two began to slink towards the door.

Rocky soon noticed the pups attempting to slink away. As much as he wanted to try and comfort Rubble, it was clear that right now, Rubble was completely inconsolable, and already had a shoulder to cry on. Rocky quickly decided that his presence wasn't needed either, and moved to join the two. Mid-hug, Ryder had opened his eyes to see the pups trying to leave. He looked the three in the eyes and gestured towards the door with his head, giving his approval of them leaving them alone. The pups didn't wait to be asked twice as they swiftly made for the exit, leaving Marshall and Chase behind them.

"Marshall, Chase..." Ryder said, turning to the remaining two pups, trying to stay calm, while struggling to make himself heard over the screaming bulldog in his arms. "...I think we need a little private time..."

Marshall didn't wait to be told twice, swiftly jumping off the bed and briskly trotting towards the exit. Chase only looked down and nodded slowly before dragging himself to the door and hopping through.

Rubble's terrified crying permeated every wall with how loud it was. It didn't seem to matter where the pups might be, they'd have to listen to the haunting reminder of how broken Rubble was, and right now, he showed no sign of calming down any time soon. But then, being confronted with the prospect of nearly dying like that would probably frighten even the likes of Chase. There was a long period of silence while the pups stood around, trying to think of something, anything to say next. Until eventually, Marshall broke the silence with what sounded like a brief whimper.

"Huh? Marshall?" Chase said, looking over at his friend. "You doing OK?"

Chase didn't know it, but he came incredibly close to pushing Marshall over the edge of crying with his question. Not once had he ever had to deal with something this stressful. Sprains and broken bones he was used to, but extreme hypothermia? And said hypothermia happening to such a close friend? It was unbelievably tough to Marshall to soldier on in the face of such a frightening situation. Marshall took a few audible, uneven breaths before answering Chase without looking at him.

"...I'm… I'm gonna go check on Zuma..."

Having heard Marshall's sporadic breathing. Chase thought it best to leave Marshall alone for a little while to allow him to collect himself. "We'll just leave you to it." he replied, backing away down the hall as Marshall hurriedly made in the opposite direction. Not really having anywhere else to go, the remaining pups awkwardly shuffled after Chase, with Rubble on their minds the whole while.

Marshall had been internally screaming at himself to keep it together almost all day. He desperately wanted to find a shoulder to cry on, but with Rubble and Zuma in such a state, he didn't have a choice but to hold on to his feelings of fear and sadness. Marshall must have swallowed at least ten times before he reached Jake's room and hopped through the dog door.

Zuma was still out cold, figuratively and literally. He didn't look much different to Rubble, being wrapped up in a series of blankets while tucked under the sheets. The main difference was that Zuma was mercifully unhurt. Though his impromptu ice bath had left him unable to drive his hovercraft, meaning that Everest had to use her sled to ferry him back to the resort owing to Marshall having no room in his ambulance for two pups.

The bite of the freezing cold water was too much even for a strong swimmer such as Zuma, but his higher resistance to it meant that he was in far less danger. And Zuma proved this by stirring as Marshall hopped onto the bed, his eyes slowly drifting open.

"Maw… shall…?" Zuma whispered groggily with his eyes halfway-open.

"Hey, Zuma." Marshall whispered back. "How're you doing?"

"I'm still… pwetty cold…"

"That's to be expected. But you're warmer, right?"

"I am feeling a little better, dude... Better than when I got out of that lake, that's for suwe... Speaking of the lake, how's Wubble? Is he OK?"

Marshall paused and waited, and two seconds later, Rubble answered for him from the other room with a tearful wail of fright that worked its way through the walls of the resort. Zuma's eyes immediately opened fully as he looked in the direction of the noise.

"Do I really have to answer that?" Marshall whispered with a sad expression.

"Well not now, you don't." Zuma replied, returning Marshall's look. "When did he wake up?"

"Er, gimme a sec, Zuma. X-ray screen. Arf."

Marshall set about Zuma with the screen, confirming that he was healing nicely, even if his body temperature was still in the process of returning to normal. Marshall decided to hurry things along by wriggling into the bed and curling around his friend as he explained Rubble's condition.

"Should we… not have told him?" Zuma whispered, snuggling close to Marshall.

"Zuma, if we didn't, he would've found out at some point, anyway." Marshall whispered back, tightening his embrace. "But you know what they say: time heals all wounds."

"But he sounds so scawed..." Zuma fell quiet and listened closely for Rubble's sobs of terror for a while. "Did it weally hit him that hawd?"

"Majorly. Ryder's still trying to calm him down, but from the sounds of it, he's gonna be a while."

"You can't blame Wubble for cwying like that, though. I got off OK since I'm mowe used to fweezing water than anyone not called Evewest. But Wubble… I still kinda can't believe he woke up-"

"Zuma…" Marshall sharply interrupted without looking at him. "Just… Don't… Please."

Zuma recoiled immediately, having not thought about how this day was still a sore spot for his friend.

"Oh, gosh, I totally fowgot! Dude, I'm so sowwy!"

To Zuma's relief, Marshall responded by licking his face. "No… It's nothing, Zuma. I just… don't really wanna talk about what could've been…"

"Can't say I blame you..." Zuma nuzzled his friend as they lay quietly for a few moments, listening to Rubble's crying, which, to their relief, had started to die off.

"So what's gonna happen now?" Zuma asked.

Marshall's first response was a soft sigh. "I don't know. I guess maybe dinner? Rubble was out for a pretty long time." he replied, looking at the drawn curtains that blocked out the grey, dusky skies outside.

"Weally? How long was that?"

"Er, about… five hours, I'd say. I gotta say, Zuma, I'm amazed you didn't pass out until we got you wrapped up and into bed."

"It wasn't exactly easy." Zuma shifted around in his wrappings to look Marshall in the eyes. "This wasn't the fiwst time I've gone for a swim in water that cold, you know. But even though I'm used to it, I still can't ever shake the feeling that when I jump in, I might not come back out…"

"And even knowing that, you jumped in without a second thought?" Marshall asked.

"Yeah… And you know what? If Wubble, or, heck, any of you were in twouble, I'd do it again."

"But you know that when you next see Chase, he's gonna smack you so hard your eyes will come out of your head for doing something so dangerous, right?"

"Eh, let him. The fact that Wubble's safe is what matters."

"I've gotta agree..." Marshall nuzzled Zuma before getting up. "Anyway, I'll ask Ryder to bring you some soup, later. I need to go tell the pups about what's been going on. Just stay in bed and rest up, OK?"

"Well, alwight." Zuma replied. "I owe you one, dude. A big one. Thanks so much for taking cawe of me like this."

"That's what I'm here for, Zuma." Marshall grinned. "Just hollew if you need me. I'll be awound."

Zuma giggled in response to Marshall's imitation of him. "Leave it to Marshall to lighten the mood a little..." he thought. Marshall smiled as he hopped through the dog door to Jake's room and out of sight, only to quickly return to his old weary expression the moment he was confident he wasn't being watched.

This had to be one of the longest days of the dalmatian's life. As well as Zuma looked, something told Marshall that he wasn't far off dying back there himself. How the two youngest pups were able to take a long bath in icy water and come out of it needing nothing more than a couple of hours worth of sleep was beyond him. The thoughts of how they could've both ended up dead weighed heavily on his mind as he continued on through the hall.

Marshall walked towards the reception area of the resort to meet up with the rest of the pups. Though he couldn't help but stop by the guest room's door to listen in on what was going on. The only sounds that greeted him through the door were Ryder whispering something and Rubble whimpering while taking huge, uneven gulps of air. "Hopefully Rubble will be a little calmer when I see him next." Marshall thought to himself, getting his Pup Tag ready to send Ryder a message.

"RYDER. ZUMA'S AWAKE. HE'S STILL COLD, BUT IS RECOVERING WELL. PLEASE BRING HIM SOME SOUP FOR DINNER. -MARSHALL"

"That should do it." Marshall thought, sending the message to Ryder's Pup Pad before continuing on his way to the reception area. As he neared the door, however, he could hear the pups obviously locked in a debate about something, with the first voice he could clearly hear being Rocky's. Marshall decided to hover by the door, hoping to get a grip on what they were arguing about.

"...Chase, c'mon, you can't just wrap everyone in cotton wool!"

"I wish I could, sometimes!" Chase snapped back, obviously agitated. "And if I could've done that with Rubble, none of this would be happening! Don't you get it?! What kind of leader am I if I can't stop my friends from nearly dying?!"

Marshall couldn't keep himself from groaning. He could swear that Chase put himself down as a leader just about every time something didn't go right with one of the pups. Did the other pups call him out on how he was acting that day? Or did Chase bring up the matter himself? Either one seemed possible considering how Chase was acting regarding Rubble's near-death earlier.

"How many times do we have to say it, Chase?!" Skye asked. "You couldn't control any of what happened! No-one could!"

"But I'm supposed to be keeping everyone safe, here! If I was there today, maybe I could've come up with a plan! Maybe I could've stopped Rubble from getting his leg broken!" Chase yelled. "Now look what's happened! Rubble and Zuma nearly froze to death, and Marshall's been having the worst day of his life for it!"

Marshall went rigid upon hearing his name. "Why's Chase dragging ME into this?!" he thought.

"Don't give me that look!" Chase went on. "Have you SEEN him today? There are bags under his eyes, his voice is nearly gone… And all because I can't keep everyone safe!"

Marshall brought his paw up to his eyes, feeling the space underneath them. "Wait… really? That can't- oh, jeez, he's right..." Marshall thought, realizing that there was at least one thing he could concede to Chase.

"You can't baby the pup, Chase." Everest firmly replied. "He's working himself hard, but it's not the first time, right? That pup can handle himself just fine."

Marshall couldn't help but crack a smile.

"ARE. YOU. LISTENING TO ME?!" Chase yelled in frustration, causing the other pups, Marshall included, to flinch back in shock.

"Whoa!" Rocky yelled in an apalled tone.

"Chase!" Skye added scoldingly.

"It's not that Marshall's working himself hard! It's not that Zuma and Rubble are recovering! It's that they have to do all that in the first place! I'm supposed to be the leader here, but I can't stop them from having to put themselves through all this!"

Marshall fought to keep a growl under his breath. Now Chase was acting downright ridiculous. And he was yelling at Everest like Marshall had earlier! As much as he wanted to charge in and give him an earful, Marshall paused to consider his options. If tempers were flying like this, would scolding him really help the situation? "Hmm… Think, Marshall… What would Ryder do in a time like this?" he thought.

Ryder always had a penchant for calming the pups down when they were particularly anxious or stressed. Maybe if he kept his cool like Ryder, he could get through to Chase? Marshall took a couple of deep breaths, steeling himself for the approaching task.

"Chase, you're acting ridiculous!" Rocky yelled. "Why are you blaming yourself over this?! You're our leader, yeah, but none of this is your fault!"

"Yes it is!" Chase yelled back. "I couldn't stop Rubble getting stuck in the cave, and he nearly died out there! All of your safety is my responsibility and I couldn't save them! Any of them! Marshall went through our friends nearly dying because I couldn't be a good leader for anyone!"

"Chase. This isn't good for you, you know."


	5. Picking Up the Pieces

The pups all froze as a voice came from behind the ajar reception door. From the seats they were all sat on, they watched as a familiar spotted pup pushed the door open and came walking up to them with a neutral expression on his face.

"Oh, er, Marshall..." Chase stammered. "H-how much of that did you hear?"

I heard enough. Marshall replied calmly, hopping up onto the seat next to Chase.

"You really shouldnt spy like that, Marshall." Skye said.

"I know, Skye. I'm sorry." Marshall said apologetically. "But I dont think that's the point right now. "

"Not really." a bitter-looking Everest muttered, clearly unappreciative of Chase suddenly unloading his wrath onto her. Marshall fought to keep the glare off his face.

"Someone owes that pup an apology." Marshall thought.

"Chase..." Marshall began. "Don't you think you're being kind of selfish, here?"

The shepherd's eyes swiftly shot open, before narrowing into an offended glare.

"EXCUSE ME?!" Chase shouted. "I can't keep everyone safe and you're calling me selfish?!"

"If you weren't saying that this was all your fault, I wouldn't have to. Theres a big difference between being responsible and blaming yourself, you know."

"I AM responsible! For the millionth time, I'm meant to be your leader! I'm meant to keep everyone safe! And look how well that turned out! Rubble got stuck in a cave and nearly died because I wasnt around to stop it! Zuma had to jump into freezing water to save him and you've been running yourself ragged worrying about them!"

"So stubborn..." Marshall thought to himself. "Alright then, Chase." he replied. "Let me ask you one thing: Say Ryder took you along. What would you have done to stop Rubble getting stuck in the cave? Remember that we had to go pretty far in to get those climbers out, and one of them had a broken knee."

"Well, let's see! Chase snapped back, before abruptly sputtering out. "I... Er... Well, for starters... Uh-"

Marshall decided to let Chase stammer for a bit before speaking up again. "I thought so. Chase, you're our leader, and we all look up to you, but we all know you have your limits like the rest of us. You can't be everywhere at once and neither can we."

Chase slowly started to look down. "...I..."

"I get it, it feels horrible knowing that your friends went through all that. Ask any of us, and we'll all probably tell you the same thing." Marshall gestured to the other pups, each of them giving Chase a solemn nod as he looked them over. "But you can't blame yourself for it. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault. You really shouldnt dwell on what could've been. Otherwise it'll just make you say stuff you regret later."

It was now plain to see that Chase was feeling guilty. He hung his head with his eyes closed.

"But it hurts..." he whispered. "Rubble, Zuma and everyone here are my family... And since I'm leader, I feel responsible for protecting all of you... So when one of you gets hurt... especially that badly... I feel like such a failure..."

Now that Chase had finally dropped his guard, they could get through to him. Now the problem was clear, and the pups could try to pull their leader's confidence back up.

"Chase, don't you think we feel that way, too?" Rocky piped up. "When Ryder told us the news, I kept thinking: 'Could I have helped in some way?' 'Could I have stopped him from getting hurt if I was there?' But thinking about what I could've done wasn't gonna help save Rubble any faster."

"What Rocky said." Skye added. "Saying that it's all your fault is just silly. We don't expect you to do everything. I know it hurts, but there's nothing any of us could've done to stop Rubble from getting injured. But what matters is that we saved him. If you were a failure, you wouldn't have gotten him out of that cave, right?"

"The point is: Don't beat yourself up." Marshall continued. "You can't do everything. But you're still our leader. You're still Chase. And none of us think any less of you after today. In fact, didn't you keep it together almost the whole time you were piloting your drone? You haven't failed anyone. Least of all Rubble and Zuma, or heck, even me."

There was a long period of silence before Chase spoke again. The atmosphere was as thick as mud. Had they finally gotten through to him?

"I... no. You're right." Chase said quietly. "Look, I'm REALLY sorry I got like that..."

Rocky shook his head. "Apology accepted, but I think there's someone else you need to be apologizing to."

As Chase looked up at the mixed breed, Rocky jerked his head in the direction of the sullen-looking Everest, prompting a loud gulp from the shepherd. Not only did he not realize that he'd snapped at Everest that badly, but he never once took her feelings into account. He hopped down from his seat and walked towards the husky.

"Everest..." Chase whispered. "I... I'm so sorry... I didnt even think that I was yelling that badly. I totally blew up there. This whole day has really had me on edge... I didn't mean to hurt you...

There was another pause as Everest slowly looked up at Chase before letting out a long, heavy sigh. She too, hopped down from her seat and approached the shepherd before slowly raising her paw above his head. Chase responded by squeezing his eyes shut and lowering his head, bracing for the oncoming thrashing Everest was obviously about to give him. A collective gasp filled the room.

"Everest, don't!" Skye yelled.

"Whoa, Everest!" Marshall shouted.

"Everest, no! It's not wor-" Rocky cut himself off as Everest quickly, yet gently brought her paw down on the shepherd's nose.

"...huh?" Chase mumbled, opening his eyes and looking up to see Everest smiling warmly at him.

"Now we're even, you silly shepherd." she grinned.

Chase couldnt help but burst into giggles after a while. "Jeez, Everest, you had me going!" he giggled as Everest nuzzled him.

"Don't think you're getting out of this, spotty!" Everest turned to Marshall and gave him a toothy grin. "I still owe you for yelling at me near the cave!"

The dalmatian's eyes widened. "Hey! No fair! I said sorry!"

"Well, so did Chase, and he still had to take his lumps." Everest replied with a wry smirk.

"Aww, widdle dawwy too scawed?" Chase taunted with the same expression.

"Ugh, fine..." Marshall growled, hopping down from his seat and dragging himself over to Everest.

Once more, Everest raised her paw above Marshall's head. Once more, Marshall screwed his eyes shut and lowered his head. And once more, Everest quickly, yet gently bopped him on the nose.

"There." Everest smiled as Marshall opened his eyes. "All even." She moved in and licked Marshall's face.

"Well, at least you're happy again." Marshall giggled as he let himself be licked.

Skye and Rocky could only smile in relief at the sight. Chase was calm, Everest was happy, and maybe, just maybe, everything was going back to normal.

"Can't stay mad at her, huh?" Chase said as he moved towards Marshall.

"What are you saying?" Marshall replied suspiciously, narrowing his eyes.

"Oh, nothing..." Chase smirked, before turning his face back to a more serious one. "Hey, Marshall..." Chase raised his paw towards Marshall. "Thanks a lot. I needed that."

"Oh, forget it, Chase." Marshall grinned, happily bumping Chase's extended paw. "Anytime."

The pair of them exchanged fond smiles for a couple of seconds with the other pups watching on, until everyone's Pup Tags went off.

"Hey, pups." Ryder greeted them. "Your dinner's ready for you in Rubble's room. I'm gonna go see to Zuma, so go on in and get some food before bed, OK?"

The pups didnt wait to be asked twice, as they all immediately set off for Rubble's room.

"He's got a point." Skye mused. "I'm starved!"

"I think we all are." Chase replied. "I think eating was the last thing on anyone's mind before now!"

As they all made their way through the dog door to the guest room, the first thing that the pups focused on wasn't the food laid out for them in individual bowls by Ryder, nor was it the pet beds that he'd set up at the side. Instead, what caught their eyes was Rubble, formerly screaming and crying in fear, now lying in bed with a neutral, if empty, expression on his face. If nothing else, Ryder had obviously succeeded in calming the terrified bulldog down. Slowly, the pups all approached Rubble.

"Oh... Hey, guys..." The tone of Rubble's voice was enough to send shivers down their spines. Rubble was always so playful and boisterous. Now, though, his words were quiet. Flat. Distant. Completely lacking in emotion. Marshall internally questioned whether Zuma was right in thinking that they shouldnt have told him.

"Hey, Rubble. You OK?" Chase asked.

"Yeah... Fine..." Rubble flatly replied.

"Have you had anything to eat?" Skye asked.

"Not yet..." Rubble said.

"Rubble, you dont SOUND fine..." Rocky added worriedly.

"Don't I?" Rubble replied.

"You aren't always this... quiet." Everest said.

"Guys, can't you see this really scared him?" Marshall interjected.

"No... It's fine..." Rubble said.

The entire time, Rubble hadn't even so much as glanced in their direction. His eyes were dull and devoid of life as they stared straight ahead at the wall. The pups had to think of a way to try and cheer up their friend. Rubble in this kind of state left them all feeling sick to their stomachs. In silence, the pups all looked around at each other, until Everest raised her paw, stepped forward and hopped onto the bed, gently bumping her head against Rubble's and closing her eyes.

"Rubble, it's obviously NOT fine..." Everest whispered. "We know you nearly died out there, and we know how scary it was for you. But how do you think WE felt? As far as we knew, one of our best friends had just died right in front of us..." Everest paused and took a few deep breaths. "What I'm trying to say is that this was a scary day for all of us, not just you. But it doesn't matter anymore. You're going to be OK. We all came through to get you out of that cave. And all of us would do it again in a heartbeat. Right, guys?"

"Right!" came the unanimous response from the others.

"See, Rubble?" Everest continued. "It doesn't matter how bad things get. We'll be there to help out, and we WONT fail. Even when things look their worst, if a friend is in danger, we'd never give up until they were home safe. And I'd say that today proved it nicely."

Throughout Everest's entire speech, Rubble hadn't made so much as a single sound, simply listening to his friend's encouragement and allowing it to sink in. And a couple of seconds afterwards, he finally broke his silence.

"Everest, I... I'm sorry, but if I wasnt wrapped up like this, I'd give you a big hug..."

"Hey, I know. Hint hint, right?" Everest replied, deciding to oblige and curling around the wounded bulldog.

Marshall found himself unable to hold back at the sight. "Room for one more?" he asked, happily jumping up to Rubble and Everest and joining in.

"Oh, we're doing group hugs now?" Chase asked.

"Is now not the time?" Skye replied, readying herself to jump up and join in.

"Who said that?" Chase retorted, jumping up to the bed. "I didn't." Skye couldnt help but smile as she joined the shepherd in the swiftly-growing pile of fur.

"Way to make a pup feel left out, guys!" Rocky jokingly admonished, being the final pup to join the group effort to comfort their friend. For a while, nobody said anything. Rubble least of all. Everest's pep talk had done a good job of lifting him out of his doldrums, turning his silence from an emotionless, broken one to a contented, relaxed one.

"Guys..." Rubble eventually began. "Thank you... Thank you all so much... You're lifesavers... All of you..."

"Anytime, Rubble..." Marshall whispered. "Anytime."

"Hey, whenever you're in a tight spot, just yelp for help, right?" Chase joked, to giggling from all of the pups.

"I heard that!" Ryder suddenly interjected from the door with a big grin on his face, prompting all of the pups to snap to attention. The first thing that caught their eye was a bundled-up Zuma being cradled in Ryder's arms. "Why do you pups keep stealing my line, huh?!"

"Bus-ted!" the smirking labrador taunted, causing the pups and their owner to erupt into laughter. All except for Chase, who looked at the floor with a sheepish grin.

"Zuma!" Marshall quickly snapped out of his laughter. "You're out of bed! Are you feeling OK?! You shouldnt be moving!"

"Settle down, Marshall." Ryder said. "Zuma's fine. I fed him some chicken soup earlier. He's feeling way better, but he still needs rest, so I'm carrying him for now."

"How long were you standing there, Ryder?" Rocky asked.

"Ugh, another spy?" Skye whispered in Marshall's ear, eliciting some embarrassed chuckles from the dalmatian.

"A little while, now. But I wasn't about to interrupt your little moment. I think you all needed it." Ryder replied, moving in and gently laying Zuma in his pet bed. "Now. With that said and done, I want you all to eat. You all haven't eaten since breakfast, after all."

Ryder looked at Rubble to notice him giving him a sad look.

"Oh, dont give me the sad pup face, Rubble." Ryder continued with a smirk. "I'll have some soup for you, too. I'll be right back. And pups? EAT. You could all use the energy."

With that, Ryder took his leave through the door, and after briefly smothering Rubble in licks, the pups, minus Zuma and Rubble, all hopped down to their food bowls and hurriedly devoured the food within. Ryder was right. They all needed the energy far more than any of them knew. They were all so engrossed in their food that none of them noticed Ryder coming in with an extra blanket draped over his shoulder for Zuma and a tray containing a steaming bowl of soup in his hands. He couldn't keep the smile off his face at the sight of his pups making pigs of themselves. They all deserved it after a day like today.

Ryder didn't exactly like the idea of treating one of his pups like a baby by spoonfeeding him, but in truth, Rubble didnt care. The soup was like nectar to the bulldog. His first decent meal since his near-death experience felt amazing as the warm soup worked its way down his throat and into his belly. Rubble felt like each mouthful was Ryder's way of telling him that his horrible day was officially all over. Very soon, the soup in the bowl was depleted, and Rubble laid back with a contented sigh.

Feel better, Rubble? Ryder whispered.

"Way better..." Rubble quietly replied. "Thanks a lot..."

"You got it, pal." Ryder gave Rubble a warm smile and rubbed his pup's head before getting up and looking at the other pups who lay quietly in their beds, with some looking thoroughly drained.

"Alright, pups." Ryder began. "Before you all hit the sack tonight, there's a couple of things I need to tell you. First of all, I managed to call the vet and get Rubble an emergency appointment for tomorrow afternoon to look at his wounds." This news prompted a sigh of relief from all of the pups, with the loudest one coming from Marshall. "And second, you may remember that we left Zuma's hovercraft out in the lake." Ryder turned towards the lab. "But I dont want you to worry about it. Since the storm's died off, I'll mount a quick mission tomorrow to get it back before we go."

"Hey, thanks, Wyder!" Zuma happily replied. "But who's going?"

"Aside from you? I'm going to need Skye." Ryder went on, looking at the half-awake cockapoo.

"Whuh... Me?" Skye slurred.

"We'll be needing your hook." Ryder replied. "It'll be a quick job, and the weather looks like it'll be calm when we go back there." The boy soon turned his gaze towards a drowsy-looking Rocky. "And Rocky, I'll need you, too. Skye's helicopter was damaged earlier, so we'll need you to get it back in flying shape for tomorrow. There will be time to fix the scratches and dents, later."

"You… got it… Ryder..." Rocky mumbled.

"But for now, don't worry about it." Ryder continued. "All you need- no, all WE need right now is a good night's sleep. We've all earned some rest after today, right?"

The pups only replied with faint moans and yawns.

"Ha ha, I'll take that a yes." Ryder chuckled. "Anyway. I'll just leave you all to it, shall I?"

Ryder quickly turned towards Rubble and kissed the bulldog's head, adding a quick belly-rub through the blankets for good measure. Rubble smiled as his eyes slowly drifted closed. And with that, Ryder saw fit to take his leave, heading to the door and turning off the light, blackening the entire room.

"Good night, pups." Ryder said from the door.

"Good night, Ryder." the pups quietly replied in unison. Ryder slowly closed the door behind him.

As Ryder went back and fourth through the resort, making sure all of the doors were locked and everything was switched off, and even as he put on the pajamas he kept at the resort in case he needed to stay over and bedded down for the night, there was one feeling that he couldn't shake.

Everyone wasn't going to get past the events of today easily. Not even him. The tension of waiting around after Rubble seemed to meet his maker right in front of them was probably something that was going to be burned into all of their minds. And Rubble himself didn't exactly take the news well either.

He seemed relaxed and happy now, but the thoughts of something that terrifying weren't something that would just go away. And how was he going to cope with his injuries? A young, active pup like him with a broken leg was not a good mix. Ryder eventually managed to force himself to sleep, but deep down, he knew that only one thing was certain.

This wasn't over.

* * *

 _ **Ooooooh, shipping hints. Aren't I daring? Worry not though, hints like that will be as far as it goes with me. Anyway, just dropping in to say that this is more or less the halfway mark for the fic. I feel like this new schedule is treating me quite well. Less clock-watching involved, after all.**_

 ** _Side note: I know that Rubble had fallen into icy water in the show proper (see Pups and a Whale of a Tale), but didn't seem to suffer any ill effects for it. I imagine that hypothermia, no matter how realistically-portrayed, would probably be pushing it for a show with a very young target audience. Anyway, thanks for listening. See you in two days._**


	6. Aftershock

As if he'd been jabbed with a cattle prod, Ryder jolted awake from his slumber, thrashing around in panic as he reoriented himself. The adrenaline pumping through his veins slowly subsided as he took huge, fearful breaths, and he slowly began to realise what had just happened.

"Ugh… It was just a dream..."

Ryder rolled onto his back and emitted a hefty sigh, wiping away the sweat that adorned his forehead. He'd suspected that he wouldn't sleep soundly after one of his pups had come so close to meeting the reaper right before his eyes. As tired as he was, Ryder's brain started to work overtime. If he couldn't sleep without a terrible dream tearing him back to reality, how would the rest of the pups be taking the events of the day? How would Rubble be taking them? Nobody had been dealing with the scenario well. Rubble may have been OK at the end of the day, but seeing a friend nearly die wasn't a sight easily forgotten. The look of terror hadn't left any of the Paw Patrol's eyes for the rest of the day.

The urge to check on Rubble grew as the seconds went on. Ryder knew that it was only a dream, but he felt like he needed the confirmation that his pup was fine. That nothing had happened to him. Eventually, he couldn't take it anymore. Ryder struggled to pull himself out of bed, doing battle with his own fatigue. He took a few moments to clear the fog in his head before standing up, and slowly trudging through the resort's hallways to where Rubble and the other pups were sleeping.

Ryder tried to be as quiet as he could as he slowly opened the door to the guest room. It was entirely dark. With the curtains drawn and no sources of light, Ryder had to move slowly to avoid tripping over anything. The only thing visible through the inky blackness were the sleeping silhouettes of the five pups. Ryder stopped, realising that the beds at the side of the room were short one occupant. He glanced up to where Rubble was tucked up in bed, finding his answer in the form of a silhouette standing over the construction pup.

"X-ray screen… arf..." The silhouette spoke so softly that Ryder only barely made out what it said from the middle of the room.

"Marshall? Is that you?" Ryder whispered.

The silhouette froze and turned towards the boy as the screen extended from his back. "Huh? Ryder, sir?"

Ryder slunk towards the bed. "Is everything OK? What are you doing up?"

"Oh… bad dream. What about you?" The two spoke in their quietest voices, doing their best not to wake everyone.

"Same." Ryder replied as Marshall's screen lit up.

He didn't have to ask why Marshall was stood over Rubble's bed. The dalmatian had been tirelessly slaving away over Rubble since the moment Zuma dragged him from the icy depths of the mountain's lake. Not once had Marshall dealt with a patient in such a state as Rubble. Never had he tried to help a patient who was so close to death. Ryder was proud, but worried for his pup at the same time.

"So how is he?" Ryder went on.

"Let's find out." Marshall whispered back as he ran the screen over the sleeping bulldog.

The two felt more at ease after Marshall's impromptu examination. Rubble hadn't miracuously improved, as much as the pair prayed that he would, but his vitals were largely stable and his broken leg hadn't degraded any. Marshall sat still as Ryder rubbed his head.

"What a day, huh?" Marshall whispered.

"You can say that again..." Ryder replied.

"What a day, huh?"

Ryder held back snickering at Marshall's joke. Even at a time like this, he could still inject some humor into the situation. At least he'd managed to recover a little.

"Marshall, we're trying to be quiet, here!" Ryder hissed.

"Heh heh, sorry..." Marshall giggled under his breath.

The two turned their attention to the rest of the pups. None of them seemed to be disturbed by their activity. The five shapes remained as still as ever.

"I don't think they're sleeping too well." Marshall whispered.

"You don't think?" Ryder asked.

"Some of them were breathing heavier than usual. Think I heard some whining in there, too."

Ryder sighed. He didn't want to be proven right tonight about everyone sleeping poorly, but Marshall just confirmed it.

"Listen, Marshall… We both had bad dreams, right? Wanna talk about it? I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

Marshall paused for a moment before answering. "I… guess that sounds good?"

"Come on, Marshall. Do you really think you can go back to sleep with a bad dream weighing on you? I know I can't."

"Well… can I sleep with you, then?" Marshall seemed reluctant to ask, as if he thought Ryder was going to brush him off.

"Duh!" Ryder tried to suppress the urge to speak louder, as he picked Marshall up and held him close. "You think I'm just gonna leave you here with your nightmares?"

Another pause. Marshall lay stiffly in Ryder's arms before relaxing and snuggling close to him.

"See, buddy?" Ryder whispered. "Nothing to be ashamed of." Affectionately bumping his head against Marshall's, Ryder stealthily made his exit, ensuring that none of the pups would be woken by his brief visit.

It didn't take long for Ryder to make his way back to his room. As he turned on his bedside light, he finally got a clear look at Marshall's face. He may have looked calm, but one look into his blue eyes was all it took to show that all was not well with the dalmatian as Ryder helped take his Pup Pack off. Ryder sat back down in bed and arranged the pillows to allow him to sit up more comfortably. Laying Marshall down on his chest, Ryder pulled the covers up to the back of Marshall's head, letting the pup curl up on top of him as the boy hugged Marshall gently.

"So, Marshall…" Ryder began after a minute of the pair lying in silence. "Want me to start us off?"

Marshall's body stiffened. He was clearly uncomfortable about having to talk about his nightmare.

"Er… Would you mind?" Marshall asked shakily.

"Well, alright. Here goes... I guess it goes without saying that I dreamed about today's rescue. But in my dream, well… it… it didn't go so well."

"I think everybody's been dreaming about that... Even me."

"Not surprising… Anyway, you know that Rubble couldn't remember what happened today, right? Well in my dream…" Ryder's face contorted in pain. "Rubble… couldn't remember anything. He couldn't remember what happened, he didn't know where he was... And worst of all..."

Marshall braced himself. He had a feeling that he knew what Ryder was going to say, but even if what Ryder said surprised him, he knew he wouldn't like it.

"...he couldn't even remember his own name. Or any of us..."

Marshall whined and sympathetically nuzzled his owner's face.

"I still can't get the last thing he said to me before I woke up out of my head..." Ryder whispered shakily.

"...do I even wanna know?" Marshall asked, pulling back and looking at his owner with a look of fear. Ryder responded by swallowing hard and screwing his eyes shut. And after a while, finally choking out the words that haunted him so.

"...'Who are you?'"

Marshall let out a prolonged whimper and clung to Ryder in fear, nuzzling his face again. Ryder responded by hugging Marshall tightly, shaking noticably. Ryder momentarily feared the worst when he overheard how out of it Rubble was after he woke up. Fearing that he'd died mentally, but not physically. It was clear to Marshall that Ryder needed to get his nightmare off his chest as badly as Marshall did. The two lay there hugging each other in silent fear for a few minutes, trying to mend each other's frayed nerves. Eventually though, Ryder broke the long silence.

"Well, that's my dream. What about you?"

No reply. Marshall simply stayed where he was, not making a sound.

"Marshall?" Ryder let out a sigh. "Marshall, come on. I already told you. You don't have anything to be ashamed of. I told you my dream. You can tell me yours."

"It… I-it's not that... It… was… it was just so… scary..."

"And mine wasn't?" Ryder replied, looking into Marshall's eyes with a gentle expression. "If you get this off your chest, you'll feel way better." Ryder comfortingly laid a hand on Marshall's head. "I know I feel better after telling you about my dream. Seriously. I won't judge you at all." He gave the fire pup a soft smile. "Don't be shy."

Marshall stared at Ryder with a look of hesitation, slowly taking in what he just said. He knew that talking about bad dreams would help him over them, but this one frightened him deeply, serving as a huge reminder of what nearly happened that day. He didn't want to think about it, but Ryder wasn't leaving him much choice. Marshall swallowed back his fear.

"Well… OK... You probably already know what I dreamed about, right?"

Ryder gave a sympathetic look in response. "I think so. But I still want to hear it."

"Well… My dream… went the same way as things did today, but..." Ryder noticed Marshall's lip trembling. "By the time… we got Rubble to the resort..." Marshall's voice dropped off to a barely-audible volume. "It was… it was too late..."

Marshall screwed his eyes shut as he remembered his dream of futilely screaming at Rubble to wake up, giving a protracted whine.

"Oh, Marshall..." Ryder whispered, drawing his pup into another hug. Predictable though Marshall's dream may have been, it didn't make any less sense for him to have it, nor did it lose any of its impact. "You don't have to worry. WE don't have to worry. Thanks to you, Rubble's going to be fine."

It was then that Ryder noticed something. From his arms came the sound of sobbing and sniffling. With his face buried in his owner's chest, Marshall had finally begun to cry. Ryder opened his eyes and glanced down at Marshall before closing them again and tightening his hug. The only surprise to Ryder was that Marshall's tears didn't come sooner with the phenomenal amount of stress that came with one of his fellow pups being so close to death.

"R-R-Ryder… When… when Rubble… fell in the w-water back there…" Marshall sobbed, looking up at Ryder, who looked on the verge of crying himself. "...I… I… I really… thought that was the end… I w-wasn't… wasn't sure if Rubble… w-would ever wake up... E-E-E-Everest told me… what hypothermia... d-does to someone… I-I-I didn't even think... Z-Zuma was gonna… make it..."

Marshall could only cry harder as he went on. "R-R-Rubble was… b-barely breathing! I've… I've n-never seen someone's p… p-p… pulse g-g-get… get so low!"

"Shhhh..." Ryder whispered, fighting back the lump forming in his throat. "It was tough on all of us, you know? I don't think I've ever been… more scared myself… But you worked so hard today… You put yourself through so much…" Ryder's voice grew shaky. "And now it's all over… So you can cry all you want..."

Not waiting to be told twice, Marshall quickly buried his face back into Ryder's chest and continued sobbing. If he broke down in the middle of all of the pups during such a stressful time, he'd only end up making things even worse. Now, though, Ryder was finally giving him a chance to properly vent. To let his emotions out. And it wasn't a chance that he was about to pass up.

Marshall found himself interrupted soon after by some unexpected sounds. From in front of him, he heard tears being shed that weren't his own. Marshall looked up once more, only to be greeted by the startling sight of Ryder looking down at him. Crying.

"R-Ryder?!" Marshall exclaimed, astonished at the sight of his usually-unfazeable owner in tears.

"...B-besides..." Ryder sobbed. "You… you're not alone… I-I… I still need to vent too, you know?"

The two exchanged tearful looks for a second before tightly hugging each other, sobbing the whole while. With such a horrific event finally behind them all, and with the knowledge that their precious friend was safe and recovering after coming so close to the grave, Marshall and Ryder were finally able to excise all of the stress and fear they were carrying through the day. The pair held each other close as they shared a long, cleansing cry, weeping together into the night.

Neither of the two knew how long they held each other in tears for. Even so, they eventually stopped crying, satisfied that they were feeling better after venting their anxieties. Despite feeling thoroughly drained and red-eyed, the warm bedding combined with the tearful embrace they shared meant that Marshall and Ryder felt far more relaxed. Eventually, Marshall was the one to break the silence.

"You know, Ryder? You were right. I feel way better after all that."

"See, pal? What did I tell you?" Ryder replied, smiling down at the fire pup. "It felt good getting all of that off our chests, huh?"

"Yeah… But I wasn't expecting to see you cry, too. I don't think I've ever seen you cry before."

"Not in public, you haven't. You should've seen me earlier after we brought Rubble back."

Marshall laughed slightly. "I have a hard time believing that."

"Really! I'm not kidding! You saw me earlier, right? Once I had some time alone, I was a total mess." Ryder's face suddenly fell. "I… thought we lost him..."

"But we didn't." Marshall quickly replied, gently licking Ryder's cheek, grimacing slightly at the salty taste. "It's like you said. Rubble's fine. We all did our part and now he's safe. And when we get him proper treatment, it'll only be a matter of time before he's back up and running."

Ryder took a deep breath before the smile returned to his face. "I know… All of you pups went above and beyond today. Even when things looked their worst, you never threw in the towel..." Ryder's hug tightened. "I'm proud of you… All of you..."

As Marshall hugged back, he sniffled again. Hearing Ryder that happy with them almost made the painful day worth it. But deep down, Marshall prayed that he'd never have to deal with something like this ever again. That, he thought, was likely something else he wasn't alone in thinking.

"Ryder…" Marshall piped up. "I've just thought of something. When Rubble gets out of the vet's tomorrow, shouldn't we do something nice for him? I mean, he shouldn't have had to go through… well, any of that!"

Ryder gave a knowing smirk in reply. "Way ahead of you, Marshall. I've already got plans."

Marshall perked up. "Really?! What have you got?"

Ryder's smirk grew. "...It's a secret."

And almost as quickly, Marshall deflated, his face turning to a puff-cheeked pout, prompting Ryder to giggle. "OK, OK, I'll give you a hint. Rubble's appointment isn't until the afternoon. And I think we all need some extra rest. Don't you?"

His face changing to one of fatigue at the mention of the word "rest", Marshall wearily looked up and nodded slowly.

"And from the looks of you, I think we should get started right away." Ryder whispered.

Without breaking his hug, Ryder slowly turned Marshall onto his side. The pup didn't protest as Ryder cuddled him and slowly rubbed his belly. He simply closed his eyes and relaxed, allowing his owner to comfort him. After a harrowing day like this one, this treatment was even more effective in mentally and physically calming Marshall, and it didn't take long for him to be teetering on the edge of consciousness. Seeing that Marshall was about to fall asleep, Ryder felt inclined to join him, setting his pillows back to normal, before reaching over and turning off the light.

"Night… night… Ryder..." Marshall mumbled sleepily, as Ryder embraced him while lying down flat.

"Sweet dreams, Marshall..." Ryder whispered.

In a matter of seconds, the pair fell into a deep, long sleep. And with their pain finally behind them, the dreams they had were far better than before.

* * *

 _ **Brutal, right? Don't worry. Things get more lighthearted from here on out.**_


	7. Recovery Roadmap

Marshall's consciousness returned before he opened his eyes. He was feeling so comfortable and relaxed that he was wishing that he didn't have to get up. A smile spread across his face as he remembered the events of last night. He remembered the time he spent crying out his stress with Ryder and how much better he felt afterwards, along with Ryder's talk of how proud he was of him and the others.

As Marshall thought about trying to go back to sleep, he realized that a familiar scent was filling his nostrils. While he could still feel the warmth of Ryder's arms around him, there was another presence in the bed. Something soft and furry. Marshall didn't need to open his eyes to know who was there, but decided to confirm it anyway, lazily opening one eye to see that Chase had joined him in Ryder's arms.

Marshall had to wonder when Chase got here. Did he come to sleep with Ryder thanks to his own bad dreams? If so, how did he manage to air his fears without waking Marshall? Was he that deeply asleep? Deciding that these questions didn't really matter for the time being, he nuzzled into Chase's fur and lay where he was with his eyes closed. Eventually, he was pulled back to consciousness again as he felt Chase stirring, and Marshall opened his eyes to see a sleepy Chase turning to meet his gaze.

"Chase?" Marshall whispered drowsily.

"Morning, Goldilocks." Chase whispered back with a grin.

"When did you get here?"

"Not long ago. About a couple hours. You?"

"Just last night. What brings you here?"

"Well I was going to wake everyone and saw you gone. Went looking for you first. But when I found you, Ryder invited me into bed."

"And I slept through it?"

Chase snickered. "You woke up! You even talked to me!"

Marshall rolled his eyes with an involuntary smile. It wouldn't be the first time he was sleepy enough to not remember being woken.

"So I'm guessing you slept OK." Chase continued.

Marshall looked over at the sleeping Ryder. "Eventually."

Chase's face fell. "'Eventually'? Bad dreams?"

Marshall sighed. "Yep. You?"

Chase silently nodded, before giving Marshall an expectant look.

"OK, OK, I'll tell you..." Marshall said half-jokingly. "But only if you tell me yours, too."

"Deal." Chase replied, with his face remaining the same.

As requested, Marshall explained to Chase the events of last night. About checking on Rubble in the night, about their bad dreams, about his and Ryder's crying session and about how proud Ryder was of them all. Though Marshall decided not to call attention to Chase briefly sniffling in response to the last point.

"That reminds me, did you see how Rubble was before you left the room?" Marshall asked.

"Still asleep." Chase replied. "But he needs every minute of it, right?"

"Every last one." Marshall replied sternly. Chase smirked. Marshall wasn't usually this easily-pushed into Doctor Mode.

"Er, ahem..." Marshall stammered, realizing his abrupt change in tone. "Anyway, tough guy. It's your turn now. What did you dream about?"

Chase looked away with a sigh, closing his eyes. Something told Marshall that even Ryder didn't know about Chase's dream yet.

"Rubble's… funeral..." Chase whispered haltingly, squeezing his eyes shut. "I still remember… seeing him in a coffin… It… it was… so messed up..."

Marshall couldn't help but notice Chase's voice crack slightly. With a whine of his own, he leaned over and nuzzled the shepherd, which Chase very quickly returned.

"Not happening, Chase." Marshall whispered. "I know yesterday was scary. I thought it was all over the moment Rubble hit the water. But we brought him round, didn't we? He's going to be fine."

"But he scared the heck out of me!" Chase hissed. "How many times has one of us been in that kind of danger?!" Chase found himself wrapping one of his arms around Marshall, who quickly returned the favor, giving the shepherd a tight, reassuring squeeze. "I… I don't want to see anything like that happen EVER again..."

"I know, Chase..." Marshall replied. "I don't either..."

The pups jumped a little when they suddenly felt something tighten around them and Chase felt something rubbing his back. Glancing around them, they noticed that Ryder had halfway opened his eyes as he tightened his arm around them, looking down at them with sympathy, having been woken earlier by the two's whispering.

"It's OK, Chase..." Ryder mumbled. "I think everyone's thinking the same thing. None of us should've had to go through that. Least of all Rubble. But I'll tell you what I told Marshall last night. It's all over, now."

"Chase, if you want to cry, then cry." Marshall added. "We both did it last night. Getting this off your chest is nothing to be ashamed of."

What followed was a long pause. Chase made no noise for the entire duration, as if he was seriously considering what Ryder and Marshall just told him. The two only hoped that Chase wasn't going to try and hide his emotions for no good reason.

"...no, I think I'll hold onto it for now." Chase finally replied.

"Oh, Chase, don't do this..." Marshall whined.

"Whoa, hey, it's not like that!" Chase immediately shot back. "I'm not just gonna start holding it in for no reason. I just don't think it'd be fair to let it out now."

Marshall and Ryder shared a confused look. "'Fair'?" Marshall echoed.

"Chase, you lost us." Ryder said.

"It's not just me." Chase explained. "Everyone else has had bad dreams, too. You can see it all over their faces. Rocky, Everest, Zuma- ugh, ESPECIALLY Zuma..."

The three collectively cringed as they remembered Zuma risking his life in the freezing depths to push Rubble to shore. They could only thank the heavens above that Zuma was able to recover quickly.

"So I was right..." Marshall mumbled.

"I'm not the only one who needs to get this off their chest." Chase continued. "I don't want to cry alone, and I don't think anyone else does, either. I want to help everyone put this whole thing behind them. But..." Chase looked down and frowned with a sad look in his eyes. "...I don't know how I could do that. I want to go and talk to them all one by one, but there's gotta be a better way, right?"

Silence. As much Marshall and Ryder wanted the pups to feel better and to be able to get rid of their stress, neither of them had any ideas. Until Ryder spoke up after a few seconds.

"Pups…" he began with a smile. "...I have a job for you two, today."

Not long after, Marshall, Chase and Ryder all left the bedroom feeling surprisingly well-rested, all things considered, with Ryder heading to the kitchen to get them all some food. Marshall and Chase entered the guest room to find that everyone who wasn't Rubble had indeed woken up with the same empty look in their eyes as Marshall had last night. Somehow, the result was even more upsetting than Chase and Marshall had made it out to be. It was almost like a horror movie. The lights were on, but no-one was home.

Bearing in mind Ryder's plan, Marshall and Chase hopped up onto the bed to check Rubble over one more time, relieved to find his situation unchanged. Though as Marshall's screen retracted back into his Pup Pack, Rubble opened his eyes.

"Guys..." Rubble mumbled groggily.

"Rubble! How do you feel? Anything you need? How's your leg?" Chase barked.

"Chase, easy!" Marshall cautioned. "Don't rush him." He leaned in close to the bulldog. "Rubble. How are you?" Marshall asked gently.

"Ugh… Too hot..." Rubble moaned.

"Call the police and the fireman!" Rocky joked in the background, prompting giggles from the three pups on the bed.

"Rocky, we're right here!" Chase replied, to the amusement of everyone in the room. Marshall then moved to help unwrap Rubble from the extra blankets with a look of disgust.

"Wet pup smell, huh?" Rubble asked softly as Marshall finished. "Yeah… That bath was way too cold."

"Not funny." Everest interjected forcefully, Rubble's own attempt at lightening the mood having apparently fallen flat. "Rubble, hypothermia is no laughing matter. You saw what it did to you and Zuma..."

"Evewest, stop." Zuma interrupted. "Yeah, that cold watew messed us up something fiewce. And I'm in no huwwy to do that again. Pwetty sure Wubble isn't either. But it's all behind us now. We don't have to wowwy any more."

"Yeah, right..." Chase thought, rolling his eyes upon hearing the uncertainty in Zuma's voice.

Everest paused, considering what to say next. "I guess you're right, Zuma..." she quietly replied.

Marshall quietly scoffed. "IS he?" he thought. He didn't need Chase's ears to pick up on her own uncertainty.

"Er, guys?" Rubble piped up, turning everyone's attention back to him. "I… I really gotta pee..."

The pups giggled once more. There were certainly worse problems to have than this. Especially since they'd been through and dreamed of most of those problems already.

"We better get Ryder." Chase suggested. "We don't wanna make his leg worse."

"I'll go." Marshall replied, hopping down from the bed, only to crash to the floor with a resounding thud. "I'm good!" As odd as it was, Marshall's usual brand of clumsiness was a refreshing sight to the pups.

It may have been embarrassing to have Ryder bring him outside and help him go to the bathroom, but Rubble was grateful for it all the same. He was even more grateful for the bowl of warm soup that his owner took the time to feed him after tucking him back into bed. He may have been feeling more like himself, but he still kept to his liquid diet on a "just in case" basis. Doctor's orders.

Ryder excused himself afterwards to make a few calls. The pups couldn't help but feel curious. Surely the vet wouldn't need to talk that much to him? Though this question was far from the pup's minds as they all scarfed down the food that Ryder had left them.

"I'm so glad that's over..." Skye sighed between mouthfuls.

"Not just you." Rocky replied. "I thought that whole Mighty Pups thing was stressful, but..."

"I'm not sure a thousand captured Ryders could compare." Chase retorted, causing Rubble to look down sadly in the background.

"Whaph dibh I shay, dhudesh? Ip'sh ab obuh nowh." Zuma tried to add around a mouthful of dog food, causing everyone to regard him with a funny look.

"Ulp… ahem… sowwy… As I was saying, it's all ovew now. Wubble's fine. Wight, Mawshall?"

"Mmph..." Marshall replied, chewing up his current mouthful and swallowing. "Yep. Rubble's gonna be OK. His leg will heal, and his vitals are back to normal."

"Thanks to all of you!" Rubble added from the back of the room. "You really saved my tail this time!" He smiled widely at the group. "You helped me out of the cave, you got me out of that water… And you, Marshall…" Rubble started to tear up slightly. "Without you taking care of me afterwards, I'm not sure I would've woken up..."

Suddenly, the atmosphere grew heavier than an anvil. The sense of dread that came from Rubble's near-death experience dropped back in at full force, causing everyone to fall silent, staring off into space.

"Well..." Marshall piped up, attempting to defuse the situation before it could take root. "...it's not like I was alone! I mean without Everest helping me out, I would've been sunk!"

"Aww, thanks, Marshall!" Everest replied, touched at her friend's acknowledgement.

"No, really! I mean it!" Marshall looked straight at the husky. "I couldn't fit Zuma into my ambulance, too. Besides, you were with me the whole time Rubble was unconscious! I don't think I could've handled that by myself…"

Everest giggled in response. "Well, Doctor Marshall, the lovely Nurse Everest is always happy to lend a paw!" Marshall couldn't help but laugh at her joke.

"Whoa, dial it back, lovebirds!" Rocky teased with a big grin, wiping the smiles off of Marshall and Everest's faces.

"WHA-?!" Marshall shrieked, lighting up like a Christmas tree beneath his fur.

"Y-You-!" Everest stammered, freezing completely.

"Ooh, looks like you hit a nerve, dude!" Zuma added.

Skye simply rolled her eyes as she focused on her water.

"Heh heh heh! I've never seen a pup's ears turn red like that!" Rubble giggled.

"Mar-shall and Ever-est, sitt-in' in a tree..." Chase sang with a smirk.

"Sittin' next to Chase and S-K-Y-E." Marshall sang back indignantly.

Chase completely froze at his friend's rejoinder. All that was missing was his skin turning to stone. To the point where he completely missed Skye jerking upright, eyes bulging and desperately trying to avoid spitting out her drink. Unfortunately, the sudden pressure in her head forced the water to go the only place it could: out her nose. Sadly for Rocky, who, as if cursed by the gods themselves, was standing directly in front of Skye as she involuntarily tested out her newfound Sinus Hose Technique.

"GAAH! Augh! Ugh! Euuuuuggghhh! Aaaeeeeiiiiiiggghhhh!" Rocky screeched as Skye erupted into a coughing fit. The room exploded into peals of laughter from Rubble, Zuma and Everest, while Marshall flinched back in surprise and Chase continued to stand rooted to the ground mouth agape.

"Oh- oh gosh… Rocky, I… I'm… so sorry, I-!" Skye coughed, still reeling from the sudden rush of water through her nose. Rocky responded by silently cutting her off with a paw over her mouth and quietly ambling out of the room, all the while giving a vacant thousand-yard stare. Skye could only watch as Rocky left the room in a state of what she assumed to be trauma. It didn't seem to matter where he went. If water was involved, he'd get wet no matter what. Even if the water source was as disgusting and unexpected as another pup's nose.

As the three pups continued to laugh uproariously, Skye turned her attention back to Marshall, who gave her a wide, terrified grin, realizing that he may be in for some not wholly-undue punishment.

"You… grr… Marshall, c'mere!" Skye snarled, throwing herself on top of Marshall and pawing at his face.

Finally, Chase was able to register what was going on, throwing himself onto his back and roaring with laughter that overpowered all the other sounds in the room. Marshall didn't put up much resistance as Skye pretended to maul him, both smiling the whole way through. Having grown up around a group of boys, she was no stranger to roughhousing with everyone else, and it helped that she wasn't actually trying to hurt him as she mock-slapped him and shoved his head down.

"Agh-! No! Ugh… Uncle! Please! Skye-! Mercy! CHASE, HELP ME!" Marshall screamed.

"STOP IT-! N-NO- NO MORE! PLEASE- I CAN'T… I CAN'T- CAN'T TAKE IT! ...I'M G- I'M GONNA DIE-!" Chase pleaded through his hysterics.

"How can you pups possibly make so much noise over breakfast?!"

The pups froze where they were and looked to the door to see a bewildered Ryder staring at them. He wasn't quite sure how else to react to the sight of Rocky missing from the room, Skye pressing down on Marshall's face with her paws and all of the other pups laughing themselves sick. Despite this, there was a small sense of relief in the boy. His pups were still able to have fun, despite all the pain they went through the day before.

After the pups polished off their breakfast and Rocky toweled off, grousing about how disgusting that was the entire time, the afternoon had arrived. Not long until Rubble's vet appointment. Everest graciously accepted Ryder's invitation to come with them, especially since Jake wasn't going to be back for a couple more days. The mission to fix Skye's helicopter and recover Zuma's hovercraft was mercifully a quick one, putting them all in no danger of missing Rubble's appointment with the vet. With Rubble safely loaded into Marshall's ambulance, Ryder and the pups took off towards Adventure Bay. None of them could've been happier that they were going home.


	8. A Much-Needed Break

The pups watched on as Rubble, Ryder and Marshall returned from the appointment. Seeing Rubble come hobbling out of the vet's office in a wheelchair was a little surreal to the pups. Getting roughed up on a mission was far from alien to them, but never once had one of them been so badly injured that they were unable to walk unaided.

While the news was good in that Rubble would eventually recover, being put in a wheelchair and being told that he'd need around four months to heal was not what Rubble wanted to hear at all. No rescues, no Pup Pup Boogie and no digging for four months? It was almost too much to bear for the embattled bulldog, and his spirits had been cruelly dragged back down once more.

"I dunno, Rubble. I think it looks wheel-y cool!" Marshall joked in a bid to lighten Rubble's mood, eliciting laughter from the other pups.

"But I can't walk for four months!" Rubble replied. "I can't stay out of emergencies for that long!"

"None of us mind subbing in for you, Wubble. Heck, I alweady did once, I can do it again." Zuma said.

"Zuma's right." Ryder added. "And in that time, we'll all be around to help you get back on your paws. The doctor said we should start trying to get you back up after two months, anyway."

Rubble was at least slightly grateful for the other pups being happy to step in on his behalf, but the feeling of dragging the team down weighed heavily on him. He may not have had any control over what happened, but him going down and leaving everyone else to pick up the slack was not a pleasant feeling. Rubble lowered his head and stared at the floor.

"Guys… I'm really sorry…" Rubble mumbled. "You're all gonna have to work harder for six weeks… and it's all my fault-"

"Stop right there." Chase interjected. "Rubble. Don't you dare blame yourself for yesterday." Chase stepped forward and stared Rubble straight in the eyes. "We don't care that we've gotta sub in for you. We don't care that we have more work. You know what we do care about? You getting better. As far as we're concerned, us having to do your work is a small price to pay for having you back."

The other pups all nodded and made scattered noises of agreement.

"But Chase, it's not fair!" Rubble shouted. "You shouldn't all have to do my work because I can't stay out of trouble!"

"Oh, fair, schmair!" Chase retorted. "You didn't have any control over anything yesterday! You couldn't control the cave entrance getting blocked! You couldn't control sliding down that gravel! And you DEFINITELY couldn't control how thin that ice was! All we care about is that you're safe! If we've gotta sub in for you now that you're back with us, then that's just how the treat crumbles, isn't it?!"

Rubble stayed quiet in response to Chase's speech and screwed his eyes shut. He was clearly about to cry again. Chase moved a little closer and nuzzled against the bulldog, taking a softer tone.

"Look. I don't think any of us have been more scared than we were yesterday. None of us were thinking about having to do your work. We were only hoping that our friend would be OK. So please, stop blaming yourself. If you really want us to feel better about yesterday, then you'll focus on healing. Focus on getting that bum leg of yours back into shape. Do you think you can do that for us?"

Rubble was quick to nuzzle Chase back. "You got it, Chase." he replied shakily. "And… thank you all… so much…"

The waiting room filled with cheering and barking. The pups may have gotten the scare of a lifetime or several in the mountains the previous day, but now it mattered little. The friend that they thought was as good as dead the previous day was going to heal. And each pup resolved to themselves that they would stand by him the whole way through. Especially given Rubble's flat tone. A surefire indicator of Rubble still having a ways to go before healing completely.

Ryder kneeled down and placed a hand on Rubble's head. "OK, pups, I think that's enough." he laughed. "We're kind of disturbing the peace here."

"Aww, does this mean Chase will have to arrest us?" Skye joked.

"Laugh it up, Skye..." Chase replied.

"I hope not! That'd really put a damper on the rest of the day." Ryder added, providing some much-needed laughter for the team.

"What do you mean, Ryder?" Rocky asked.

"We're going somewhere else?" Everest added.

"Yep. After a day like yesterday, I'd say we've all earned some time to play, huh? And since you've all been such good pups, I can't think of anywhere better than Adventure Beach!"

The news prompted a new wave of cheers from the pups. Now that they had concrete news that Rubble was going to be alright, the chance to finally play around and enjoy themselves was greatly appreciated.

* * *

Despite him being wheelchair-bound, Rubble was thankfully more able to dig than he initially thought. It was a lot more difficult, but he was still able to build sandcastles. For the time being, he was perfectly happy. Meanwhile, the other pups were happy to do their own thing in the meantime, with Zuma and Rocky taking on Skye and Everest in a game of volleyball with Ryder as referee, Chase going for a swim and Marshall deciding to simply stare over the horizon.

Marshall always loved a good view. And the beach never disappointed when it came to that. The deep blue ocean combined with the clear sky and the shining sun never failed to get him staring for hours on end. Though as much as he tried, he couldn't get the thoughts of everyone else out of his head. Their empty, vacant expressions still sat with him as much as he tried not to think about it. Chase was right: there had to be a way to try and cheer everyone up. But Marshall took solace in the fact that Ryder seemed to have a plan. He always did, after all. Marshall only had a little while longer to think before a familiar presence brought him back down to reality.

"You know, lie here much longer and you'll probably get swept away by high tide." Chase began half-jokingly.

"Oh, good, the ocean comes to me. Saves me a trip if I wanna swim." Marshall replied, with Chase shaking his head and grinning in response before lying down next to him.

"Still thinking about yesterday, huh?"

"Actually, no. I was thinking about everyone else."

"What a surprise. Not that I blame you of course. It's unnatural when just one of us has that look in their eyes, but everyone? Ugh..." Chase shuddered as he recalled their faces.

"Right? It's like you said, we don't get into that kind of trouble often. I think everyone's thinking the same as you. No-one wants to see that happen again. I know I don't."

"Still, Ryder's got a plan. And I think we'll be putting it into action soon..."

"He always does..." Marshall replied fondly. The two pups sat in silence for a little while before Chase spoke again.

"So that joke you made at breakfast… Did you come up with that on the spot?"

"Nope, been saving it." Marshall replied with a smirk.

"You… have?"

"Yeah, I had a feeling you'd say that to me at some point. I took a week coming up with that one. Gotta have stuff ready just in case, you know?"

Chase was dumbstruck. "Are… are you seriously saying that you spent a week coming up with a comeback for something you THOUGHT I'd say?!"

"Well, when you put it that way, of course it sounds dumb!"

"Ugh, is there anywhere you won't go for the sake of making a joke?!"

"Aww, no need to be mad, wuvver boy!"

"Grrgh, you cheeky little-!"

Chase stood and leapt at the dalmatian with a primal yell, who quickly rolled over and raised his paws in preparation for the shepherd-shaped missile about to hit him. The pair rolled through the sand and shallow waters as their play-fight went on, growling and barking at one another as they tried to push each other down and slap each other silly. Of course, they'd been doing this since they were tiny. This was nothing they weren't used to.

"Am I interrupting something, here?!"

The pups stopped dead as Ryder's familiar voice cut through the air, lying side by side with Chase's paw in Marshall's face and Marshall digging his legs into Chase's chest.

"Honestly, Marshall, can you go a few moments without getting into a fight of some kind?!" Ryder asked with an exasperated expression.

"What can I say? I'm feeling tough today! Grr!" Marshall replied with a smile, leading to laughter from all three of them and a facepalm from Ryder.

Ryder took the two pups to one side, away from the others to lay out the steps of his plan.

"I still can't believe we're going to put this to bed with a game of Truth or Dare." Chase bewilderedly remarked.

"C'mon, there have been stranger ways of helping people, right?" Marshall retorted. "Heck, I don't think we were expecting me to go for a ride on a flying diving bell, but it worked out!"

"Focus, Marshall." Ryder instructed. "You guys remember what to do?"

"We play for a little while and go in for the kill after a few spins?" Chase asked.

"You got it." Ryder replied.

"I don't think there's any risk of anyone talking about their dreams before we're ready." Marshall opined. "Yesterday was tough to talk about at breakfast. When Rubble mentioned it, everyone went quiet."

"Great, that makes your jobs easier, right?" Ryder asked, with Chase and Marshall nodding in response. "So. Any questions, pups?"

Chase and Marshall shared a brief look between each other, before turning back to Ryder.

"Nah, I've got nothing."

"No questions, Ryder, sir."

"Great. And one more thing..." Ryder said, laying down the small glass bottle Rocky picked up off the beach earlier. "...I know this won't be easy for anyone. But you're all still playing a game, right? I want you both to enjoy yourselves all the same. You can do that for me, right?"

"You bet!"

"Of course!"

Ryder smiled warmly at his pups and rubbed their heads affectionately, before turning around and walking towards his ATV to head back to the Lookout for a while. As the pups watched him leave, he stealthily, and without looking back at them, gave them a quick thumbs-up. A silent vote of confidence in the pair of them.

* * *

"So wait a minute… you're telling us that you got into a fight with Ryder's bedsheets… AND LOST?!" Rocky yelled in utter disbelief.

"I thought there was an intwuder! Wouldn't you have done the same thing?!" Zuma yelled defensively.

"Oh yeah, you're such a hero! That pile of pajamas would've eaten us all alive if it weren't for you!" Skye remarked, sending everyone who wasn't Zuma into uproarious laughter.

"You are SO dead..." Zuma growled at Everest.

"Bwing it on, water boy." Everest replied with a smug grin.

"OK, OK, ladies. It's Rocky's turn now." Chase laughed.

"Green means… GO!" Rocky said, spinning the bottle with gusto.

Their game had been going on for a little while, and no-one had been spared the embarrassment and ribbing from their teammates. Zuma was the most recent addition to the pile, but their game's tone was set at the start when Rocky was dared to act out the transformation sequence from the Canine Guardians and recite the Guardian Creed. His face still had yet to stop burning at the shame of not only being forced to do that, but at the teasing that followed about him knowing the entire Creed without any prompting. Him falling on his face after standing on his hind legs for so long didn't help, either.

From there, things didn't settle down any. Marshall had already been forced to admit that he had a liking for the show Gorgeous Princess Catsworth, Everest had to tell a story of how she flooded the Resort, Chase had to pretend to be Chickaletta, Skye had to profess her celebrity crush on Luke Stars and Rubble had to sing his own rendition of "Banana Split Sunrise" while dancing around as best he could. The bulldog ended up burying his face in the sand for a little while after that embarrassment. The bottle soon came to a halt, pointing once again at Marshall.

"OK, Marshall. Truth or dare?" Rocky asked.

"Hmm… I guess I'll go with dare this time." Marshall replied.

"OK then..." Rocky said slowly, looking around the circle of pups. "Marshall..." Rocky's sight eventually settled on Everest. "...I dare you to bench press Everest twenty times!"

"WHAT?!" Marshall and Everest screamed, the other pups already desperately trying to suppress their laughter.

"I can't do that! Everest is one of-" Marshall quickly realized what he was saying, clasping a paw over his mouth.

"Are you SURE you want to finish that sentence?" Everest asked with a mildly threatening undertone.

"No..." Marshall sighed defeatedly, dragging himself over to Everest. "I'm sorry. I'll do my best."

"We'll kill Rocky later. Just try not to drop me?" Everest whispered.

"No promises..." Marshall whimpered, lying on his back and rolling underneath Everest.

Everest gasped as she felt Marshall's paws digging into her stomach and chest. As Marshall pushed up, Everest lifted her paws off the floor, laying herself out perfectly straight. Marshall wasn't exactly unfit, but he'd never had to lift anyone as big as Everest before, not helped by her wobbling around from how uncomfortable Marshall's paws were. Straining, Marshall took a breath in and started his reps.

"Onnnnnneee..."

"T-Twoooo..."

"Thhhhhhhhreeeeee…"

"Fffffffffffour..."

Marshall stopped to take some more breaths in as the other pups rolled on the sandy banks suffocating on their own laughter. Even before the first rep, Marshall was straining his words through gritted teeth. The face of exertion he wore as he continued his unwilling workout painted an absolute picture.

"Th-th-thiiiiiirrteeeeeeennn..."

"Fffffffooouuurr… teeeeennn..."

"Ffffffffiffffff… teeeeeeARGH!"

Marshall couldn't take it anymore. His legs completely gave out and the husky-shaped anvil he held up came crashing down on top of him, covering his nose and mouth and leaving the already short-of-breath dalmatian struggling to breathe. Everest took a couple of seconds to get off of him as she recovered from the paws digging into her.

Marshall spluttered and took massive gulps of air as he tried to recover from having Everest dropped on him.

"Sorry, Marshall! Are you OK?!" Everest asked worriedly.

"Ugh… ugh… yeah… I think… I'll be… fine..." Marshall panted. "You aren't… hurt… are you?"

"I'm a little sore, but I'll be OK..." Everest mumbled, shooting a withering glare at the other pups, who were completely incapacitated from laughing so hard.

"Oh, you should be in the Olympics!" Chase laughed.

"You're so strong, Marshall!" Skye giggled.

"That was amazing!" Zuma added.

Marshall and Everest dragged themselves back to their spots in the circle, with both wearing scowls that could cause flowers to wilt.

"I am gonna soak you so bad..." Marshall snarled in a laughing Rocky's ear as the latter dragged himself up.

"Worth it." Rocky grinned.

"You gonna spin there, muscles?" Rubble giggled.

Marshall scowled at Rubble and spun the bottle hard, putting his mind to what he'd do to get revenge on the others. Until he remembered the plan and his face fell completely. They were all having so much fun. In fact, the Paw Patrol were having an utter blast. He really didn't want to ruin it all by dragging everyone back to thinking about how close Rubble was to death. In fact, even he'd forgotten about it until now, and the last thing he wanted to do was ruin it for everyone. But if not now, then when? Wouldn't it be worse to condemn everyone to having the thoughts of Rubble dying on their conscience with no-one to share them with?

"Er, yoo-hoo, Mawshall?" Zuma asked.

"...huh? Ah, oh, sorry..." Marshall replied, flatly.

"The bottle's pointing at me… aren't you going to ask me?"

Marshall didn't reply. His expression shifted to a far more serious one, usually reserved for when things had gotten especially grim. He silently looked at Chase, who, being able to read his expression effortlessly, gave him a firm nod. Marshall took a deep breath. It was time to put their fears behind them for good.


	9. Face Your Demons

"Zuma. Truth or dare?"

"Err… Dawe, I guess? Dude, you're scawing me."

It was hard to blame Zuma. Everyone got a look of concern as they looked at the oddly dour-looking Marshall. The only time a pup as happy as Marshall would ever get like this was when something had gone badly wrong on a rescue. So why was he looking so serious in a game of Truth or Dare of all things? Marshall didn't notice any of this as he went and spun the bottle again.

"What are you doing?" Skye asked with a confused expression.

Eventually, the bottle stopped spinning, and landed on Rocky. Marshall looked back and forth at the mixed breed and labrador, before taking a deep breath.

"OK… Zuma… I dare you to share your dreams last night with Rocky." Marshall said, causing everyone except for Chase to gasp, evidently touching a nerve among the group.

"Marshall! Wha-?!" Rocky stammered with a wide-eyed expression.

"No way! I'm not doing that!" Zuma barked with the same look.

"You're turning down a dare now?" Marshall asked.

"That's a weally pewsonal dawe, Mawshall!" Zuma now had an offended glare. "I'll do anything else, but not that!"

"Zuma." Chase gently piped up. "It's OK. None of us are going to judge you for your dreams."

"But my dweam last night was howwible! I don't want evewyone else to hear it!" Zuma protested.

Chase sighed heavily. "You're not alone, Zuma. I had bad dreams last night, too. And so did Marshall and Ryder." Intrigued, the other pups listened closely. "I know that everyone's been having bad dreams because of what happened yesterday. I hate that we all had to go through something that stressful. Rubble got the worst of it, of course."

Rubble looked down and whimpered.

"The truth is that this is the main reason me and Marshall wanted to play Truth or Dare. We wanted to help everyone get their bad dreams out of their systems."

"I don't feel so scared of yesterday anymore." Marshall added. "You know why? Because I talked to Ryder about it. We both shared our bad dreams with each other and cried about it together. We got it all off our chests already."

The other pups looked perplexed.

"Marshall, are you saying that Ryder… cried?" Skye whispered with a baffled expression.

"Hard to believe, I know. But its true. He was just as scared as all of us. And talking about our dreams was his idea in the first place." Marshall replied.

"Right." Chase continued. "Don't think I didn't see that look in your eyes this morning. You all looked like you were miles away. You all looked scared."

"Not to mention the whining and heavy breathing last night." Marshall added.

Shame washed over the pups like a wave. Marshall and Chase had seen straight through them. None of them were comfortable discussing the events of yesterday or the dreams that had shaken them so badly, but now Marshall and Chase had cut off all of their other options.

"Our dreams were horrible, too." Chase went on. "But we feel better for talking about them. I want to put my fears behind me and move on from yesterday. But I want everyone else to do the same thing. And it starts with talking about them. So please. Don't just bottle it up."

"Chase..." Zuma mumbled. "...do I… have to?"

"Zuma, if you don't want to..." Rocky replied quietly.

"Guys..." Marshall pleaded with a gentler expression. "...please..."

Seeing his lack of choice in the matter, Zuma swallowed hard and looked down. "...OK..." he mumbled, walking up to Rocky.

There was a long pause as Zuma ambled closer to Rocky. Zuma was always hard to scare. For the longest time, the pups thought that he wasn't afraid of anything, but now it was clear as day that whatever he dreamed about had frightened him deeply. There were several fakeouts as Zuma took a few deep breaths in preparation to speak. But eventually, Zuma finally began to explain.

"OK, Wocky… Last night… I dweamed about twying to save Wubble after he… fell in that water..." Zuma said quietly, slowly looking down at the floor. "But… this time… I couldn't do it..." He squeezed his eyes shut. "I swam… and swam as hard as I could… But I never got any closer… I saw… Wubble just… floating there… he wasn't even moving..." His voice had begun to crack, punctuated by the odd sniffle. "The w-watew… was so… c-cold… I… I got so tiwed and then… th-then evewything… evewything went black…"

The pups stared on in horror as Zuma finally broke down and fell to the floor in tears. Even Marshall wasn't expecting Zuma to have had a dream that terrifying. Chase gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes closed as it dawned on him just how bad everyone's dreams were. But Rubble felt even worse than the sobbing lab on the floor in front of him.

He realized that the team would have to do more work because of his injury, but all he'd thought about other than that was how scared he was at nearly dying. Not once had he considered how badly he'd scared everyone else. But now he was faced with hard evidence in the form of everyone talking about their horrible dreams. Their horrible dreams that he'd caused. It didn't take long for Rubble to become overwhelmed with guilt.

"Zuma… Zuma, I'm so sorry!" Rubble sobbed. "I-I… I didn't know! It's all my fault!"

"No it isn't!" Zuma shouted. "Y-you didn't WANT to go through all that, did you?!"

"Shhhh, easy, Zuma..." Rocky whispered, placing his paws on Zuma's head, trying to avoid a breakdown of his own. "It was only a dream..."

"B-but it felt so weal!" Zuma replied tearfully.

"If I hadn't… fell in that water… th-this wouldn't be happening!" Rubble added.

"Rubble?" Marshall piped up quietly, walking towards him. "Stop it, OK? Quit blaming yourself. None of us blame you. We all had bad dreams last night… heck, I dreamed we couldn't save you and Ryder dreamed you lost your memory completely..."

Marshall thought back to his own terrifying dream of standing over Rubble's lifeless, sodden body. A couple of tears leaked forth from his eyes.

"It was so scary… But you know? It was all just a silly dream." Marshall continued, before briefly stopping to collect himself. "And I DON'T blame you for it. I bet none of us blame you for our bad dreams… right, guys?" Marshall turned to the other pups and received responses from all but the crying Zuma, ranging from frantic head-shaking to emphatic yells of denial. "But if we keep it in… then I don't think we'll ever get over what happened. And that includes you..."

"He's right..." Chase whispered, slowly approaching Marshall and Rubble. "I ended up dreaming about your funeral, Rubble… We all thought it was the end when you fell in the water. And now we know that didn't happen… well, I feel like the luckiest pup in the world." Tears could clearly be seen coming to the shepherd's eyes. "Right now, all I want is for everyone to put this behind them… and right now… I don't think we can do that without… getting it all out of our systems..."

"Hey, Rubble..." Now it was Skye's turn. "...if one of us ever got in that kind of danger… all we'd care about is making sure is that whoever it was got home safe; Chase, Rocky, Marshall, whatever." Skye's voice quickly started to break as her nightmare came back to her. "So imagine how I felt in my dream when I couldn't do that! Imagine how I felt when I heard Ryder screaming and everything going quiet! Imagine how I felt when that storm blew my helicopter into a cliff with that being the last thing I heard!" Skye paused as the tears began to flow for her and Everest ran up to her, nuzzling her tightly. "But..." she went on. "...in the end… you're all safe now… I d-don't care about that dream… I'm… I'm just so glad you're OK..."

"I've seen what hypothermia does to someone..." Everest began mournfully. "When it comes to humans, it can really mess them up, but pups?" Her voice started to waver. "I can't lie… I'm amazed you made it out OK… I mean I dreamed about Zuma… fishing your dead body out of the lake last night..." Everest couldn't stop herself from sniffling. "If Zuma wasn't there… I… I don't wanna think about it… But you're fine, now… so I don't have to." Everest gave a sad smile while continuing to hold the crying Skye.

"It's… like everyone else said..." Rocky stammered, having narrowly avoiding breaking down from his vain attempt to comfort the contagiously-sobbing Zuma. "Rubble… I dreamed about breaking down those rocks… only to find your... d-dead body..." Rocky paused as he and Zuma held each other tightly in a bid to comfort one another. "But… you're not… dead… you're still here and breathing and talking… You needed help and we got you home safe… That's all we wanted. So STOP blaming yourself already!" Finally, Zuma's crying spread as Rocky shed a couple of tears of his own. "All that matters… is that you're safe..."

Rubble had no words in response to what he was seeing. Almost every single pup was in tears and holding on to another. Rocky held on a clearly-terrified Zuma as he strained to keep his own tears in check, Everest tightly hugged the sobbing Skye and Chase and Marshall lay at Rubble's sides reassuringly holding him and rubbing his head. But they were almost all shedding tears for him. Tears of gratitude for his safety.

Rubble felt terrible about scaring everyone from nearly meeting his end in the deathly-cold waters. And his leg injury made him think that he was only going to be a burden to the team. Yet here they all were reassuring him that all they cared about was the fact that he was back with them safe and sound, nightmares or no. All he could do in response was cry even harder, joining the other pups in pushing out all of the pain and fear of the last day. And as if beckoned there, Rubble sound found the other pups surrounding him in yet another group hug. A collective assurance that everything was going to be OK.

And in that moment, seeing the right time to open the proverbial bottle, Chase held Rubble tightly and joined him in letting his tears out, finally content that he wouldn't be crying alone.

The time slipped away from the seven pups as they all collected themselves. None of them knew how long they cried on the sandy shores of Adventure Beach for and none of them cared. But after a long time, all of them lay around Rubble, occasionally sniffling and hiccuping. And a little while later, Rubble broke the silence.

"Guys… thank you all… so much…" Rubble whispered. "...Not just for the rescue… but for everything… I thought you'd all hate me for dragging you all down and scaring you, but..."

"Oh, forget it, Rubble." Rocky cut in. "You aren't dragging us down. What happened yesterday could've happened to anyone. And we've said it before: it wasn't your fault."

"Exactly." Chase added. "Plus, I dunno about you all, but I feel way better after that."

The others couldn't deny it. After the long gut-spilling session they shared, it felt like a massive weight had been lifted. The feeling of contentment was mutual across all seven of them, as they all nodded in agreement, their eyes having returned to their previous shining state. Though their eyes may have been red from crying, no longer were they as devoid of life as before.

"Ryder's a genius, huh?" Marshall opined, to which Chase nodded enthusiastically.

"Well, that was a dawe and a half..." Zuma quipped, to muted giggling.

"Marshall, was that some kind of payback for me making you bench-press Everest?" Rocky joked.

"Well, I mean, if you want it to be..." Marshall replied with a small smile.

"Should we… keep going?" Skye asked.

"I dunno…" Everest replied. "That was the ultimate dare..." She flashed a cheeky grin at Marshall. "I don't think any of us could top it."

"Hey! You could all come up with worse! Chase had to be Chickaletta earlier!" Marshall shot back with a grin. "Isn't that right, Mr. Banana Split?!" Marshall looked straight at Rubble.

Rubble was about to retaliate against Marshall's teasing, but simply burst out laughing with everyone else instead. It really was remarkable how after all that sadness, they could go back to joking around and teasing each other so quickly. Despite everything, things were looking up once more. It was almost as if nothing had changed from before the incident.

"Heh, I don't know about you all, but I wanna keep going." Chase said. "I believe it was my spin?"

Once the pups had clambered back into their positions in the circle, Chase gave the bottle another solid spin, spinning away the last of the pups' concerns about the previous day as they all gathered around once more, happy to finally continue their game, and wondering what their foul minds had in store next.

* * *

"This doesn't mean anything, right? TELL ME THIS DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING." Chase hissed in Marshall's ear.

"I would if it didn't look like you were about to try and kiss me!" Marshall hissed back, prompting Chase to immediately drop him and to flop forward onto the floor, the shepherd's back legs finally giving out.

They thought that the dares would only get as bad as having Rocky act like Chickaletta or have Marshall bench-pressing Everest, but Skye clearly had other ideas. She dared Chase to dance a waltz with whoever the bottle landed on next, and as fate would have it, the bottle landed on Marshall.

The pups were already on the brink of passing out from laughing so hard at the sheer awkwardness of the two's awful dancing, but then Marshall's clumsiness took hold as he tripped over his own paws, landing in a backwards lean as the cherry on top of the incredibly-awkward cake.

"Y-you two… You grew up… so fast!" Rocky gasped.

"I didn't know… you swung that way!" Zuma choked through his laughter.

"You… You make… a really cute couple!" Skye laughed. Even Marshall and Chase couldn't stop themselves from smirking and giggling a little. Embarrassing though it was, it didn't stop either of them from seeing the funny side of the situation.

"Jeez, the things I miss when I leave you pups alone..." a voice came from the distance. Ryder had finally arrived back at the beach from whatever it was he was doing, only to see the pups laughing themselves sick as Marshall and Chase lay on the beach recovering from having their paws repeatedly trampled by one another.

"Were you two fighting again?" Ryder asked with a grin.

"You… could say that..." Chase replied.

"Well, you can tell me later." Ryder said. "How's your game going?"

The pups explained to Ryder about the unexpected emotional turn the game had taken and thanked Ryder for the idea to help them all air their fears.

"No thanks needed, pups. That's what I'm here for." Ryder said with a smile.

"You're here to make us all cry?" Skye joked.

"Only if it makes you all feel better. Which it clearly did this time." Ryder laughed. "I'm just glad to see that you're all looking happier."

The pups could only smile back at Ryder in response.

"Anyway. I hope I'm not interrupting your game. We've still got places to be, today." Ryder went on.

"We do?" Rubble asked. "Like where?"

"Like Katie's." Ryder replied, causing the pups to perk up immediately.

"Let's forget about you all getting dirty on the beach today..." He gave Marshall and Chase a playful glare, causing them both to look down in embarrassment. "...and think about how tiring yesterday was for all of you. So I can't think of anything better to help all of you relax- well, ALMOST all of you..." Ryder continued, momentarily locking eyes with Rocky, causing him to reply with a sheepish grin. "...than a nice, long bath. Sound good?"

The barking and cheering from the pups served as Ryder's answer. It seemed a little strange that Ryder seemed to be avoiding taking them home to the Lookout, but they certainly weren't objecting to Ryder letting them cut loose like this. They wasted no time in helping Rubble into Marshall's ambulance and heading to Katie's with newfound vigor.

* * *

 _ **Is it me, or am I really laying on the Mood Whiplash? It went from lighthearted, to heavy, to back to lighthearted, to back to heavy, to back to lighthearted in the space of a couple of chapters!**_

 _ **Anyways, this is your Official Penultimate Chapter Warning** **™. The last chapter in this fic will be coming in two days. After that, I'll be writing an Afterword to talk about my future plans (and to give a shoutout or two), just like I did with Primary Fears.**_

 _ **That's all for now. See you Tuesday.**_


	10. Never Alone

"Rubble… Hey, Rubble… Rise and shine, sleepyhead..." Katie whispered.

"Mmmrr… whuh? Ugh…" Rubble slurred. "Hu- AH! Oh, sorry, Katie!"

Katie giggled in response as Rubble scrambled to stand. From the minute Katie lifted him into the hot bath waiting for him, Rubble practically melted into a furry puddle, the terror of nearly dying and the pain of his friends worrying themselves over him vanishing entirely. As much as Rubble loved a good bath, after an incident as strenuous as that, the fragrant bath felt like absolute nirvana, and it didn't take Rubble long to nod off.

"I don't blame you, Rubble. If anyone deserves a nice long rest right now, it's you." Katie quietly replied.

"Well… not just me… Everyone else does, too… They all ran themselves ragged because of me..." Rubble said.

"Oh, Rubble, I'm sure they don't mind at all. Ryder and all of you pups have looked out for each other the whole time you've known each other, right?"

"Yeah, they've told me that they don't care about me dragging them down as long as I'm safe, but..."

"They don't think you're dragging them down, you silly pup! This won't be the first time the pups have had to fill in for someone else, right? Besides, it's not gonna be forever. Who knows, maybe you can look forward to working extra hard when you get better!"

Rubble paused and thought about it for a while. "You're right, Katie! I can do that!" Rubble barked, stomping one of his paws into the ground, making a splash as he did so.

"Alright, alright, take it easy, Rubble." Katie laughed. "I'm still not done, here. I still need to wash that big belly of yours."

Rubble giggled and laid back, trying not to fall asleep again as Katie took the shampoo to his stomach.

After a long time, Rubble eventually left the room that Katie had set the bath up in after she had helped him back into his wheelchair, his body feeling far heavier after the relaxing bath he was just given. He was practically glowing. He exited into the main room to see that everyone doing their own thing. Everest was doing battle with Chase over a tug toy. Ryder was at the far side of the room lovingly brushing a blissful Rocky's fur. Marshall and Skye were engaged in a game of Pup Pup Boogie and Zuma was preoccupied gnawing on a chew toy.

"Whoa, Rubble, you look like a million bucks!" Everest greeted him after putting down the tug toy.

"How was your bath? It looks like it felt really good!" Chase added.

"That had to be the best bath ever..." Rubble mumbled.

"You totally deserved it, Rubble." Everest smiled. "Mmm, you smell like flowers..." Everest poked her nose into Rubble's side, prompting laughter from the three.

Rubble had decided to take a rest after his bath. He spent most of his time chatting quietly to Zuma. As much as he was trying to avoid it, Rubble was doing battle with the urge to grab onto his saviour and squeeze him silly. Instead he simply lay there, enjoying the company of the labrador until Katie called Marshall into the side room for his own bath.

"I hope that bath doesn't make Marshall too sleepy… He's silly enough when he's awake!" Rubble mused.

"Heh, I hope so, too." Zuma replied. "Have you SEEN Mawshall when he's sleepy? It's almost like he's dwunk!"

Rubble could only laugh at the thought of an inebriated Marshall before pausing for a while. In the end, Rubble couldn't hold off on the urge anymore, and pulled Zuma into a tight squeeze.

"Whoa, hey!" Zuma exclaimed in surprise.

"You're my hero, Zuma..." Rubble whispered. "I can't thank you enough."

Zuma lay there in silence before hugging Rubble back with all of his might. "Hey, it wasn't all me, Wubble." Zuma replied. "But still, thewe's nothing I wouldn't do for one of you… All I want is for you to get better..."

"Gladly..." Rubble whispered again, giving Zuma some grateful licks, only to abruptly stop upon hearing a scream and a loud splash.

"Oh, Mawshall..." Zuma sighed, prompting him and Rubble to burst out laughing in each other's arms.

Marshall left the room after a while looking completely blissed-out. And seeing how relaxed and clean Rubble and Marshall were after their baths made the other pups eager for their own baths to say the least. Sure enough, every one of them felt like a new pup as they left the room. They could see why Katie only used that particular soap for special occasions. Much to Ryder's shock, Rocky decided that he didn't want to be left out after catching a whiff of everyone's coats. It was miraculous that a bath like that could relax even him.

"It smells like I just walked into a meadow!" Ryder joked as he walked over to where the pups were laying after their baths. "I'm guessing you pups enjoyed your baths?"

Ryder decided to take the ensuing scattered, soft moans as a "yes".

"Don't fall asleep on me yet, pups! You're gonna want to be awake for what's next!" Ryder laughed.

"Huh? Wh-what could be next?" Skye mumbled.

"We're headed back to the Lookout!" Ryder replied. "There's something there that you're all gonna like..."

"What… could that be?" Chase asked sleepily.

"That would be telling..." Ryder replied with a knowing grin.

Slowly, the pups dragged themselves up one by one and made their way to the door. It almost looked as if they were sleepwalking.

"The heck was in that soap? No wait, actually, I'm not sure I wanna know..." Ryder thought to himself. "Drive safe, pups!" he cautioned as he hopped onto his ATV, and lead the way to the Lookout, praying that none of them would end up falling asleep at the wheel.

The Lookout was a welcome sight for the pups as they all parked their vehicles in their respective bays, with Everest using Rubble's bay for the time being. Until they managed to retrieve and repair Rubble's crushed bulldozer, Rubble would have to sleep with Ryder. "How convenient." Ryder thought. "Now he can't say 'no'."

"Home at last..." Rocky sighed, hopping down from his truck.

"Lookout, sweet Lookout!" Marshall happily added, landing less gracefully. "I'm OK!"

He trotted towards the door, expecting it to slide open as it usually did, only for him to bump into it face-first.

"OOF! Urgh- wha?" Marshall mumbled, shaking himself off. "That's weird..."

"Huh? Is the door busted?" Everest wondered aloud.

"Hey, at least we aren't getting into a thirty pup pileup this time." Chase joked.

"Oops! Sorry about that." Ryder apologized. "I must've forgot to unlock the door. One sec."

As Ryder spoke, he drew his Pup Pad from his pocket and pressed a few buttons, allowing the door to slide open, revealing the inky blackness within. Rubble turned to Ryder with a perplexed expression.

"Was there a power cut while we were gone or something?" he asked.

"Not as far as I know." Ryder replied before smirking. "Wanna turn the lights on and find out?"

With a funny look, Rubble decided to do as he was asked, using his front legs to wheel himself over to the light switch for the Lookout's lobby and turning it on, bathing the room in a bright, white light that momentarily dazzled the pups. But as their focus returned, they realized that the lobby that once looked so familiar to them had changed drastically.

"What the-?!"

"Huh?!"

"Whoa!"

The pups emitted various astounded reactions in response to what lay before them. Ryder, however, reacted with nothing but amused silence. Keeping secrets like this from his pups was hard, but their reactions always made the trouble worth it.

Flags bearing Rubble's pup tag emblem hung from the walls and various yellow banners hung from the ceiling adorned with messages such as "WELCOME HOME RUBBLE" and "GET WELL SOON". The floor was littered with balloons and tables had been set up piled high with food of all kinds. From sausages to chicken, pizza to chili, it seemed that this surprise buffet had no end. Surrounding the tables were a multitude of dog bowls of various colors filled with the same food that adorned the plates. Every single pup couldn't quite process what was going on, leaving them with identical slack-jawed expressions.

"...what… IS this?" Skye slowly inquired.

"I guess I fell asleep at Katie's earlier… someone wake me up?" Zuma added.

Ryder couldn't help but laugh at his pups' disbelief. "Don't be silly, Zuma, you didn't fall asleep! You're all really seeing this!"

Ryder expected at least some excitement, but the baffled silence continued.

"...you're saying… this is all for us? For me?" Rubble asked.

"This is what you were up to earlier?" Chase added.

"You got it, pups." Ryder replied, walking to the front of the group. "I gotta say: yesterday was probably one of the worst days ever for us. I don't think we've ever gone through anything that awful. Icy cliffs? Wild animals? Tidal waves? I'd take any of those over nearly losing one of our own." Ryder and Rubble shared a mournful look.

"But." He continued. "All of you were so brave out there. Even when things looked their worst, when it looked like what we were doing was for nothing, you all hung in there. You all stuck it out to the end. It didn't matter what happened, none of you gave up on Rubble."

Ryder kneeled down to look his pups in the eyes. "Rocky. Chase. Neither of you have had to take on a mission like this before. But neither of you flinched when you saw what had to be done. Without that pickaxe of Rocky's, we never would've been able to get Chase's drone into that cave. And without Chase's drone, I don't know if we could've got Rubble out.

Ryder got up and moved over to the next group of pups. "Skye. Even in the face of that high wind and snow, you didn't give up. Other pilots wouldn't dare fly in weather like that. But you were so brave. You found that other entrance for Rubble, and helped Marshall and Everest get to where they needed to be, even when things looked as bad they did. Speaking of which..."

He turned to look at the dalmatian and husky.

"It wasn't fair that you two got all that pressure. You shouldn't have had to deal with a case like that. But even when faced with something that stressful? You stuck it out. Nothing stopped either of you from rescuing Rubble and making sure he got better, even when it all looked hopeless. I saw how badly stressed out you both were, but you both pushed through it. I'm sure a lot of people would kill to have the kind of grit you two have."

Ryder got up and moved to the last couple of pups. "Zuma. Nobody asked you to risk it all like that when Rubble fell in that water. But you didn't even blink. And it's thanks to you that we managed to get Rubble to safety." Ryder's gentle expression quickly turned firm. "But I DON'T want you doing something that dangerous EVER again. Clear?"

Zuma looked up with a blank expression and nodded, barely flinching from his owner's disapproving tone. He wasn't exactly in the correct frame of mind to think rationally when he saw his friend vanish beneath the frigid waves, but in truth, he didn't regret his actions one bit. "Psh. I'd swim through a thousand freezing lakes for my friends..." Zuma mentally retorted.

Finally, after patting Zuma on the head, Ryder got up and moved to the final pup. "And you, Rubble." Rubble looked up, surprised that Ryder had something to say to him. "How you managed to be so brave in the face of something like this I'll never know. If you felt like giving up in that cave, well, I don't think any of us would've blamed you." Ryder affectionately laid a hand on Rubble's head. "But somehow you kept pushing on, even after you got so beat up, and even that broken leg didn't slow you down!"

Ryder fell to his knees as he scratched Rubble behind the ears. "You've all been such good pups… I'm so proud of you all..."

Once again, the situation proved to be too much for Rubble to handle. Looking around to see the warmly-smiling faces of his friends, Rubble couldn't stop himself from breaking down again and pulling himself into his owner's arms, a sense of joy filling him up and spilling out through his eyes.

Words failed the bulldog as Ryder held him close and comfortingly rubbed his back. All Rubble could think to do was smile more widely than ever as he hugged his owner as tightly as he could, tears continuing to stream down his face. The other pups watched on, with some attempting to stifle crying of their own.

In the end, Zuma proved to be the one who couldn't hold back, jumping into Ryder's lap and nuzzling against the injured bulldog. The dominoes fell quickly, and Ryder soon found himself surrounded by a sea of fur, all nuzzling and hugging Rubble themselves, complete with the occasional sniff. The boy simply relaxed and enjoyed this quiet moment with his pups, letting a tear of his own slip as the point was driven home to him: the nightmare of the last day was finally over.

Rubble took a little while to calm down. But even when he finally did, he never let go of Ryder and continued to spout gratitude nonstop for a while.

"Ryder, sir… thank you..." Rubble whispered for what had to be the sixth time.

"Oh, Rubble." Ryder replied quietly. "I'd say that getting you back safe and sound is enough reason to celebrate, right? Besides, I think we ALL earned this after a rescue as tough as that."

"But all this for us?" Rubble replied. "You didn't have to go this far..."

"Oh yes I did." Ryder retorted. "Don't my pups deserve a reward after yesterday? None of this was too much trouble for me at all." Ryder beamed down at the bulldog. "Now are we just gonna sit around and let this food go to waste, or are we gonna enjoy ourselves?!"

With deafening cheers, the pups practically disappeared altogether and in an instant were crowded around the tables, devouring the food that lay in the bowls next to them. Even Rubble practically teleported out of Ryder's arms. Ryder couldn't suppress laughter as he took in the sight. "Hey, don't hog it all!" he shouted after them as he ran to the tables to try and get some food before it all vanished, realizing that in this case, time was precious.

For once, the Paw Patrol had been summarily defeated. It wasn't a feeling that they were used to by any stretch. Usually, when they had a mission to complete, it would be done no matter what came their way. But this time, Ryder and his pups faced a challenge that even with all of their combined efforts, they had completely failed to rise to. The most unexpected thing of all was that the challenge didn't involve a rescue or one of their enemies' hair-brained schemes. The Paw Patrol had met their match at the hands of food, of all things.

It didn't matter how much they ate, the food just kept coming. And in the end, it was no use. The pups lay strewn around the room, paralyzed from the sheer volume of food they'd all consumed. Even with the eternally-hungry Rubble on their side, a large amount of the food still remained uneaten. Ryder simply lay slumped in a beanbag, trying to fight off the food coma that he'd brought upon himself, and thinking about how much exercise it'd take to get everyone back into shape.

"Ugh… Jeez… I'm stuffed..." Marshall groaned.

"Mmrgh, I couldn't… eat… another..." Everest mumbled.

"Can't… move..." Rubble added.

Ryder gave a small smile upon hearing this. All of his efforts to get this party set up had been made worth it from seeing how the pups took to it. It was always a joy to get the chance to act like the children they were from time to time. Ryder soon found that he couldn't fight off the urge to sleep any longer and finally gave in, drifting away in satisfaction of his efforts.

The world slowly morphed back into focus as Ryder woke back up. After having slipped away as the sun was setting, turning the sky a rich orange, the sky was now pitch-black, nighttime having arrived at some point earlier.

"Ugh… how long was I out?" Ryder mumbled to himself. He barely had time to contemplate his own question before noticing the rest of the Paw Patrol passed out around the room. Ryder giggled quietly to himself. "Guess all that food finally got to 'em." he thought. Staring around the room, he took in what a mess they'd all left. Empty bowls and dishes filled with half-eaten and uneaten food lay dotted around the room. Realizing that it wouldn't clean itself, Ryder forced himself to his feet, and set about cleaning up. "No job is too big, no Ryder is too small, heh." he thought to himself with a grin.

Cleaning up big messes wasn't something alien to the boy, but trying to do it quietly certainly was. It must have taken him an hour to sort the uneaten food back onto the plates, put them into the fridge and move the dirty dishes to the kitchen to be washed in the morning. It was clear they'd be eating the leftovers for days. Shrugging off the thoughts of them getting sick of dinnertime fridge raids, Ryder decided to see to the pups, moving to fetch their pet beds. He didn't have one for Everest, but he imagined that she wouldn't mind using Rubble's for now.

"Is this why Marshall struggled with his dare?" Ryder thought as he tried to catch his breath. He'd finally finished lifting the sleeping pups into their respective beds. He managed not to wake any of them, but the job was far more exhausting than he thought it'd be. He didn't think Everest was that heavy. Chase was probably closest to her in terms of weight, but lifting him was nothing by comparison. He smiled warmly as he admired his handiwork. Some of them twitched and snuffled in their sleep, but none of them looked to be in even the slightest bit of distress. Not even Rubble, who remained asleep on the floor next to one of the tables. Ryder emitted a worn-out sigh, deciding that it was long past his own bedtime.

Rubble stirred from his slumber to find the braces on his wheelchair being slowly unfastened. He barely had time to think about what was happening before he felt himself being lifted into the air. Opening his eyes slightly and turning around, he could just barely make out Ryder's shape taking him somewhere.

"Mmm… mrrgh…?" Rubble mumbled.

"Shhhh…" Ryder whispered. "It's time for bed, Rubble."

"Whuh… where…?"

"Don't worry about it..." Ryder whispered as he carried Rubble into the elevator and the bulldog slipped back into sleep once more.

Rubble next woke to find himself tucked into a very comfortable bed. As his situation became clear, he couldn't keep from emitting a hefty groan. "Oh, not again..." Rubble thought. He'd had quite enough of waking up in beds with no memory already, having no recollection of what had happened after enjoying the party with the other pups earlier. Sleepily, he glanced around to see that he was in Ryder's room, completely alone and minus his wheelchair. Though Rubble couldn't help but notice that he had his old blanket loosely wrapped around him as well. Before he had time to wonder what was going on, the door opened to reveal a pajama-clad Ryder with Rubble's wheelchair in one hand.

"Ry… der…? Wh-wha's..." Rubble slurred.

"Shhhhh..." Ryder whispered. "Just go back to sleep, OK?"

Ryder placed the wheelchair next to his bed before climbing in himself, wrapping his arms around the bulldog and hugging him close. Rubble found himself starting to slip away for the third time that day almost immediately. Not just from how comfortable he was, but from the realization brought on from being in a warm, soft bed with his owner after a previous day of drama and pain, that things looked like they were finally going back to normal.

"Ryder…? Every… everything's… OK now… right?" Rubble whispered as he snuggled closer to Ryder, feeling safer than ever.

Ryder was surprised at how quickly the pair of them were falling asleep. Not just from the long couple of days they both had, but from how they no longer had anything to worry about. Rubble was going to be perfectly fine and Ryder and the pups were all free from their nightmares. These facts alone gave him all the confidence he needed to reply before he blacked out for the night.

"Yeah… Totally… Everything's… gonna be… alright…"

The road to recovery was going to be a long one. One that would likely be full of potholes and bumps. Walking it wasn't going to be easy, and he was going to be kept out of rescues for a long while. But in spite of everything, Rubble was looking forward to it. He wasn't going to be walking alone, after all. His family had put themselves through untold suffering to prove that much. Only one thought went through Rubble's head as he settled into a deep sleep in his owner's warm embrace.

"I must be the luckiest pup in the world..."

* * *

 ** _And that, as they are so fond of saying, is that. That is officially the last chapter in the story. Aside from the Afterword, of course, which I HOPE to be releasing tomorrow. But I can't be too sure. In all honesty, things are going to get... hectic in the coming days (Huh. Deja vu) for me since I'm going to be leaving the country for a week. I hope you all enjoyed this fic despite the trouble I had writing it from time to time. My future plans will be detailed in the Afterword. Again, it may not be a new chapter, but I'd appreciate it if you could give it a look all the same when it goes up. Thanks for listening, and see you again soon._**


	11. Afterword

_**So that's yet another fic off my list. I can't say I'm not happy with it. There are so few fics with Rubble as the focus on this site, and I like to think that I managed to do the pup justice. Though as I said at the start, he's hard to write about. I don't know why that is. It's really tough to place exactly why, but he seems to garner less… interest than the other pups, I suppose. Which is funny, considering how often he's used in the show.**_

 _ **And as I mentioned, writing this with the distractions of the holiday season looming over me? Didn't make writing this any easier. I feel like the quality of the fic fluctuated in places. And thinking about it, the Mood Whiplash was quite heavy in it. Like it went from lighthearted (the pups all joking around over breakfast) to heavy (Rubble being depressed over his injury) and back again (Chase and Marshall play-fighting) really often. Hope you all know decent chiropractors. But as I said, I don't regret writing it.**_

 _ **Moving right along: I'd like to give a quick shoutout to someone. LuigiWife1551. Thank you very much for all the reviews you left for this fic since I started it. I always love seeing people's reactions to what I write (Side note: She has been writing a fic of her own entitled Caretaker. Highly worth a read). And as per usual, thanks go out to everyone who reviewed, favourited and what-have-you.**_

 _ **And now: My future plans. The next (and last) fic that I had on my list was a one-shot collection involving Marshall and Chase, my two favourite characters. It will be a collection of seven short(ish) stories involving the usual stuff you can expect from me.**_

 _ **As I said in the last chapter, I'll be leaving the country for a week in a matter of days, but if you'd believe it, I already have one of the one-shots written. The downside? I got totally carried away. The final total was about 6K words! So to that end, I'm going to strike that off the list of one-shots and upload it as its own thing. Shame to waste it. I'll come up with something else to replace it.**_

 _ **I'll be uploading that on the first Monday I have back home, and I'll be uploading the chapters (two of them) at a rate of one a day, owing to it being smaller than Primary Fears. After that? I'm not sure. The stories (which I'll pre-write and upload to a schedule, as I always do) will simply arrive when they arrive.**_

 _ **But the final one-shot is something I'm a little conflicted on. I'm thinking that I might also replace that with another story and turn the originally-planned story into its own fic, if that makes any sense. Here's a not-so-subtle hint as to the original plan is. Ultimately, I think whatever choice I make will be for the best.**_

 _ **And now, for the not-so-good news. Whether I keep the idea I mentioned as its own thing, or turn into its own fic, whatever I choose will very likely be my swan song. Writing fanfic is harder than it's made out to be. And writing decent fanfic? Even more so. I've really enjoyed sharing my stories with you all, and seeing people react to them and wonder what the next chapter will bring was an utter joy, but unfortunately, juggling writing with real life? NOT. EASY. Especially if you're trying to keep your writing habits on the DL. I'm sure the amount of dead fics on this site can attest to that. Besides, I've tapped the well of ideas, and there's really not much left for me in there.**_

 _ **Will I come back? Well, never say never. I may get the itch to write again, I don't know. The funny thing about the future is that it's stupidly unpredictable. You never know what it might bring. My intention is to vanish, but I still hope that I can leave the door open for me to return should the urge rise again.**_

 _ **So in advance, it was quite a ride. One that I thoroughly enjoyed. To everyone who read my fics, to those who enjoyed them, and to those who left reviews (for better or ill), I thank you all deeply. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have kept it up.**_

 _ **See you next time for Relight the Fire.**_

 _ **PyreFly out.**_


End file.
